PIP: In South Carolina family planning was only another and a low priority service of the county health department from the period of 1939 to 1971. Functioning under the State Board of Health, some counties served as few as 50 to 60 people in the course of a year. In 1965 the Office of Economic Opportunity began to make family planning grants to their local community action project agencies and under these grants family planning clinics operated in 28 counties in South Carolina through 12 projects. In 1971 South Carolina received funding from Title X of the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, and the South Carolina Statewide Family Planning Program was created within the State Board of Health. By the 3rd year there were 10 district projects covering all of South Carolina's 46 counties in operation. As of July 1, 1974 all family planning services in South Carolina were supported by tax dollars through categorical grants and we re administered through the Statewide Family Planning Program of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. A single recording system is used and all procedures are standardized. By 1974 some 56,000 women were receiving family planning services on a regular basis. It is now essential that program emphasis be shifted from communication about family planning to improvement of actual services. There must be new services which include male involvement, teen services , and the use of nurse practitioners. Rather than stressing a search for new patients, the objective now is to offer services in the most efficient and effective manner. Although the South Carolina Statewide Family Planning Program has grown rapidly in the 4 years since its implementation, there are still many areas requiring improvement.