XN000022-1973-08-08 — Page 2

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Wednesday, August 8, 1973

DIRECT PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY FLANNING

Finance Committee Approves $2.4 Million Expenditure

Direct government participation in family planning is to begin

on a phased basis from October 1 this year, with the gradual integration

of family planning services in government clinics.

Family planning will then become available within the maternal and

child health service of the Medical and Health Department.

The Finance Committee of the Legislative Council recently approved

a sum of $2.4 million to cover the cost of this participation between October

this year and the end of March 1975.

The overall aim is the Medical and Health Department's assumption

of full responsibility for the family planning clinics in 28 government clinics

now being run by the Family Planning Association.

But the Association and other voluntary agencies in the field of

family planning will continue to have a significant role to play by concentrating

their clinical, educational and research efforts in housing estates and other

areas, where they are most needed, particularly in the New Territories, not

served by the Medical and Health Department.

The government's direct participation in family planning was

foreshadowed by the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, on October 18 last year

when he told the Legislative Council that it was "clearly in the public interest

and family health, having regard to the pressure generated by people on services

such as housing and education, that the blessing of children should be bestowed

dissolutio

at a rate that is planned and not profligate.

/Since