Singapore's "Stop at Two" Reversal

In 1972, Singapore's Health Minister called having a fourth child irresponsible. Newspapers ran it on their front pages. Then came the poster. Two girls under one umbrella, sharing one apple. "Girl or Boy, Two is Enough." It was on buses, in hospitals, in primary schools, on television. They stripped income tax relief from any fourth child. Hospital delivery fees went up on a sliding scale punishing each additional birth. If you refused to stop having kids, your family dropped in the public housing queue. Nurses at Kandang Kerbau Hospital chided women carrying a third child as if they'd committed a...