Vanishing Korea: Where have all the children gone? So in 1961,
the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea was established as a
joint effort between Koreans and the United States. The new
group worked closely with the government to launch a National
Family Planning Program, the goal of which was to stop Koreans
from having so many babies. It was a multipronged push. There
was propaganda, with the government warning citizens, “Unplanned
parenthood traps you in poverty” and “Sons or daughters, stop at
two and raise them well.” Efforts were made to increase women’s
enrollment in high school. Contraceptives were handed out freely
to anyone who would take them. Men were exempted from mandatory
military service if they submitted to vasectomies. The plan
succeeded wildly. In a single generation Korea’s fertility rate
dropped by more than half, from 6.0 to 2.8. In 1981, the
government set its goal as a fertility rate of 2.0. It offered
economic incentives for parents who were sterilized after a
second birth and, for a