Lack of family planning information may result from discrimination, doctors' reticence, lack of research, or communication difficulties (such as language problems, illiteracy, cultural gap). Governments may specifically forbid the dissemination of family planning information as part of a population expansion programme.
Discrimination in the dissemination of information may be practised against certain social groups, particularly the young and unmarried and certain racial and religious groups, or information may simply be less available for the less well-off, and in rural and inaccessible areas.
The birth control pills distributed by the American AID programme come packaged with very little information, and that information is written in English. Most women who receive these packages cannot read their own language, let alone English, so the pills go unused. There are not even diagrams to show what to do. On these same packages, the only picture is a profile of a woman; the profile is coloured blue. As blue denotes depression, many women think that perhaps the pills are anti-depressants and/or that they themselves might turn blue if they take the pills. Both of the mentioned problems could easily be alleviated by proper education of both the packager and supplier of these pills as well as the recipients.