[Excessive population and health]. / La poblacion excesiva y la salud.

PIP: Population density in El Salvador is among the highest in the world. In metropolitan San Salvador and the other main cities, crowding, squatter settlements, unemployment and underemployment, scarcity of basic services, squalor, and other social pathologies appear to be increasing. Overpopulation poses an enormous challenge for development. Reflection on the benefits of family planning has been delayed in El Salvador, and in the interim there have been increases in social inequality, misery, and hunger. Family planning programs have been referred to as "neo-Malthusian" and contrary to the right to life, but in fact they promote birth spacing and free selection of methods by couples, contributing to improvement in the quality of family life. Family planning allows couples to limit their offspring to those they can adequately care for emotionally and materially. People must be shown that family planning alleviates many of humanity's problems.^ieng