Are family planning centers still needed?
The Sexual Information Clinic in Oslo was founded more than 20 years ago. The clinic is the largest family planning centre in Norway, treating 4,000-6,000 patients per year. In recent years the treatment of venereal diseases has become the major component of the daily work. The authors describe the different groups of patients who visit the clinic. The meanage of the patients is 21 years. The high number of legal abortions among younger women and the rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases prove the continued existence of a need for family planning centres. The authors discuss the situation of family planning centres in Norway in general and stress the importance of their work. They argue that all venereal diseases should be treated free of charge. PIP: Since its opening in 1971, and up to 1991, the family planning (FP) center in Oslo had 4000-6000 consultations annually: 1/4 of them were for unwanted pregnancies in the early 1970s which dropped to only 6% by 1990. In 1975 an
