The work considers the regulation and practice of family planning in Yugoslavia in the 20th Century. Despite many changes in socio-economic conditions in the country, growth of standard of living and availibility of contraception, for most couples during the whole of the 20th Century abortion, first illegal then legal, remained one of the main “methods” of spontaneous and short term family planning. Paradoxically, despite liberalisation of sexuality and the sexual revolution after World War 2 and attempts at creating counselling centres, promotion of contraception and the so called “humanization of relations between the sexes”, one of the main successes of state policy in the field of family planning was the decriminalisation of abortion and its “move” to hospitals and ambulatory care clinics. On the basis of sources from the Archives of Yugoslavia and relevant periodical press and literature, the author will attempt to answer the question why this state policy had such poor results and which motives influenced couples to decide on families with one or two children.