Migrants and Birth Control Services
Author: Browning, Robert H.
Date Published: 1966
The poverty status of this nation's migrant farm workers has been well established over the years. Surveys, studies, congressional hearings, and other forms of inquiry leave little room to question seriously that migrants occupy the low rungs of the economic ladder, though contributing significantly to the national agricultural economy. Adequate birth control service is seen as an important, medically sound, socially acceptable means of assisting to break the cycle of poverty. To what extent do agricultural migrants, whose poverty status is undisputed, have access to adequate birth control services? In late 1966, a survey was undertaken to gather information relevant to this question. The survey area included: Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Each of the states, at the time of the survey, attracted several thousand migrant farm families and was receiving the funds provided by the Migrant Health Act of 1962 for the support of migrant health projects. The data reported here imply a need to arrive at a commonly acceptable notion about the health needs of migrants. There is a suggestion in the data that migrants are considered to be in need of family planning services only if they are working in certain geographic areas on the migrant stream.
Date Published: 1966
The poverty status of this nation's migrant farm workers has been well established over the years. Surveys, studies, congressional hearings, and other forms of inquiry leave little room to question seriously that migrants occupy the low rungs of the economic ladder, though contributing significantly to the national agricultural economy. Adequate birth control service is seen as an important, medically sound, socially acceptable means of assisting to break the cycle of poverty. To what extent do agricultural migrants, whose poverty status is undisputed, have access to adequate birth control services? In late 1966, a survey was undertaken to gather information relevant to this question. The survey area included: Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Each of the states, at the time of the survey, attracted several thousand migrant farm families and was receiving the funds provided by the Migrant Health Act of 1962 for the support of migrant health projects. The data reported here imply a need to arrive at a commonly acceptable notion about the health needs of migrants. There is a suggestion in the data that migrants are considered to be in need of family planning services only if they are working in certain geographic areas on the migrant stream.
