Limiting population growth. The People’s Republic of China has pursued anti-natalist policies, notably the ‘one-child’ strategy (although J. Dreze and A. Sen (1989) claim that economic security for China’s rural population hastened the fall in birth rates). Barber (2003) Cross-Cultural Res. 37 believes that countries with large populations are more likely to pursue anti-natalist policies in general, and to discourage single parenthood in particular, to justify controlling population. However, Coe (2004) Reproductive Health Matters 12, 24 argues that pro- and anti-natalism are ‘the greatest obstacles to making real and long-lasting improvements to sexual and reproductive health and rights’.