Cupid's Touch: The Lessons of the Family Planning Movement for the AIDS Epidemic.

The article examines lessons gained in the family planning movement and its applications for the handling of the AIDS epidemic. The purpose of this article is to compare the assumptions and programs which grew out of the family planning experience and to explore this important model of behavioral change and health care for help in understanding the AIDS epidemic. Family planning is the largest official arena for maternal and child health care in this country. The national family planning programs are three decades old and are clearly the largest investment in safer sex or sex with planned consequences that the U.S. has ever generated. The family planning establishment has acquired depth through its alliance with feminism and the women's health movement. These combined forces have opened a public discourse about women's sexuality. A major accomplishment of the family planning movement which is applicable to the AIDS epidemic is the history of planning and evaluation. Another lesson from family planning is how to join the establishment and even be accepted and honored while treating such heated topics as women, minorities, sex, disease, confidentiality, babies, abortion, dignity, justice, morality and caring.