Frederick S. Jaffe

Frederick S. Jaffe (1925–1978) was a vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and founder of what is now the Guttmacher Institute. He was an advocate for increasing the availability of family planning services in the United States. Through his publications and consultations Jaffe argued for birth control as a matter of health and human rights. He was instrumental in developing public support for federal financing of family planning programs, among them the landmark Title X of the Public Health Service Act, passed by Congress in 1970.For his contributions to public health Jaffe was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in September 1977.

Jaffe was born in Queens, New York City on November 27, 1925, and died of a heart attack on August 16, 1978 in New York City. After service in the Army Air Force (1944–1946), he completed his bachelor's degree in Economics at Queens College in 1947. Subsequently establishing himself as a journalist, he then joined the Planned Parenthood Federation of America as associate director of its Information and Education Department, later becoming Vice President for Program Planning and Development. In 1968 he established the Center for Family Planning Program Development, the research and public policy arm of PPFA, along with Dr. Alan Guttmacher, then president of PPFA. The organization was named after Guttmacher in 1974, with Jaffe as President, and spun off from Planned Parenthood in 1977.

Jaffe also consulted with other organizations, among them the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Institutes of Health, the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. He was posthumously awarded the Margaret Sanger Award, Planned Parenthood's highest award, in 1978and The Carl S. Shultz Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Public Health Association. Upon the latter presentation, the Population Section of the APHA passed the following resolution:

"The Population Section of the APHA records its deep sorrow over the untimely passing of Frederick S. Jaffe, President of The Alan Guttmacher Institute. Mr. Jaffe, both through his organization and as an individual, was instrumental in the conceptualization of a national family planning program and in its later development and implementation. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which he founded, reflects Mr. Jaffe's commitment to the production and use of the requisite research and analysis for making informed decisions about fertility-related services and domestic population policies.

"Mr. Jaffe's death is a loss not only to those of us in the population and family planning field but also in the public health arena at large. He worked tirelessly to insure that all people regardless of income, age, race, sex or residence have full access to the reproductive health and social services to which they are entitled."

In recent years a 1969 memo written by Jaffe has been a source of controversy on the Internet. The memo, written to Bernard Berelson, head of the Population Council, included a table that summarized many proposals from various sources regarding population control. This memo has been cited to accuse Jaffe and Planned Parenthood of supporting such measures as compulsory abortions and sterilizations, which were among the proposals referenced. In fact, the table was a listing of current proposals, with sources documented, not the policies of Planned Parenthood.

The original memo is available online.

1. The Complete Book of Birth Control, Alan F. Guttmacher, Winfield Best, Frederick S. Jaffe, Ballantine, 1961
2. Planning Your Family: The Complete Guide to Birth Control, Overcoming Infertility, Sterilization, with a Special Section on Abortion, Alan F. Guttmacher, Winfield Best, Frederick S. Jaffe, Macmillan, 1964
3. Birth Control and Love: The Complete Guide to Contraception and Fertility, Alan F. Guttmacher, Winfield Best, Frederick S. Jaffe, Macmillan, 1969
4. Reproduction and Human Welfare: A Challenge to Research, Roy O. Greep, Marjorie A. Koblinsky, Frederick S. Jaffe, MIT, 1976
5. Impact of Family Planning Programs on Fertility: The US Experience, Phillips Cutright, Frederick S. Jaffe, Praeger, 1977
6. Abortion Politics: Private Morality and Public Policy, Frederick S. Jaffe, Barbara L. Lindheim, Philip R. Lee, McGraw-Hill, 1981

1. "Financing Family Planning Services", American Journal of Public Health 1966 Jun; 56 (6) 912–917
2. "A Strategy for Implementing Family Planning Services in the United States", American Journal of Public Health 1968 Apr; 58 (4) 713–725
3. "Family Planning and Public Policy: Who Is Misleading Whom?", Science 1969 Jul25; 165 (3891) 367–373, with O. Harkavy and S.M. Wishik
4. "Public Policy on Fertility Control", Scientific American 1973 Jul; 229 (1) 17–23
5. "Knowledge, Perception, and Change: Notes on a Fragment of Social History", Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine 1975 Jul–Aug; 42 (4) 286–299
6. "The Pill: A Perspective for Assessing Risks and Benefits", New England Journal of Medicine 1977 Sep 15; 297 (11) 612–614