The population policy during this period was mainly based on the three concepts "Later, Infrequent, and Fewer". "Later" meant late marriages, and aimed at marriages at relatively older ages for men and women. "Infrequent" denoted about four years' interval between two deliveries. "Fewer" implied that no couple would have more than two children. In the meantime, contraceptives and necessary devices began to be supplied free in 1970. In 1973, sterilization, application of IUDs and provision of medical facilities and devices for abortion were introduced in a third of the villages of the country. The Revolution had not yet ended at this stage, but various political means were taken to control population.
The Cultural Revolution lasted as long as ten years until 1976. The new 1978 Constitution stipulated that "the nation advocate and promote planned childbirth", while the defining principle of "one child per couple most desirable, maximum two" was explicitly proposed.
The population policy was characterized even more clearly by a focus on "controlling the population and enhancing its quality". In the following year, it was announced that planned childbirth was one of the basic national policies of China, and the objective was set to control the population of the country within 1.2 billion by the end of the century. The population policy, initially introduced in the early 1970s, took more than ten years of efforts to specify in the Constitution that planned childbirth was a married couple's obligation, by which step China's population policy became firmly established. Since 1980, the policy of "strong recommendation of only one delivery, strict control of second deliveries, and prohibition of more deliveries" has been in force. With regard to "the second delivery", provinces or cities have their own specific rules, allowing some regional differences. While the population policy conducted in China is generally called the "Only Child Policy", it is, more accurately, an "Only-Child Recommendation Policy".
