In Panama, the government’s concerns over fertility regulation andcontraception go back to the start of the 1940s, to a social and political backdrop in which women accomplished important social demands as well as the recognition of basic civil rights3, and the problems of the population’s health started to occupy a more important position on the government’s agenda. Accordingly, the first actions involving female contraception policy, undertaken by the State, particularly those relating to the voluntary sterilization of women, were not directly determined by the existence of a population policy with the explicit aims of regulating births and reducing demographic growth4. The growth of the population, inasmuch as it “did not disturb” sustained economic performance, was not a priority public policy issue. In this regard, it should be mentioned that the issue of family planning was initially dealt with by the Panamanian Family Planning Association (APLAFA), a private entity formed around the middle of the 1960s.
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