TEHRAN, Aug. 2 (UPI) —
Iran’s health ministry said it plans to scrap a state-supported birth control campaign in favor of a campaign to encourage larger families.
"The budget for the population control program has been fully eliminated and such a project no longer exists in the health ministry," Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi confirmed. "The policy of population control does not exist as it did previously."
Dastjerdi’s confirmation comes just days after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced the 20-year-old policy would be done away with, and that Iranians should work towards a population of 150 to 200 million, The Daily Telegraph reported.
A recent census puts Iran’s population at just over 75 million.
The $15 billion program formerly consisted of vasectomies, health ministry-issued contraceptives, statutory family planning counseling for newlyweds and even a state-owned condom factory.
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