RESUMO
PIP: This work identifies human rights conflicts that may result from the confrontation of the reproductive patterns of a population with family planning policies. It seeks to identify the parties involved in specific conflicts in order to document them and propose resources for their management. The fertility decline that began in Mexico in the 1970s and the significance of family planning policy as a means of facilitating the preexisting desire of couples to control fertility are examined. Possible sources of conflict are then explored in the relations between the population and health care providers. Class differences between service providers and clients, possible failure of providers to provide full information on reproductive and contraceptive options to their clients, imposition of one-sided decision making and power relations, and gender discrimination should all be examined from this perspective. Failure to allow a sufficient delay between birth of the last child and sterilization is a concrete example in which questions may be asked concerning safeguarding of the reproductive rights of individuals. The relationship of service providers to population and health policy is a potential source of conflict if, as has occurred in Mexico, the goals for fertility reduction are not met and the decision is made to redouble institutional efforts rather than modify the goal. A first step in confronting possible conflicts is to demonstrate systematically that inequalities exist in access to rights. Conflicts should be documented and interpreted in terms of underlying power relations. The concepts of reproduction, human rights, and family planning should be analyzed for their exact semiotic significance to indicate possible sources of conflict at the level of conceptualization. An awareness of reproductive rights and a willingness to defend them should be promoted in the population.^ieng