1980s Set in near future, population control is by putting contraception in the water [s]

[Emma]

This was a loosely feminist novel I read in probably the 80s. Contraceptives were put into the water supply and you had to apply to be issued with the antidote if you wanted a child. I can't remember any of the actual characters, it was more the concept that has stayed with me.

Female author, almost certainly British.

Any ideas? Many thanks.

[Sheila]

Is it Benefits by Zoë Fairbairns? Birth control in the water is a plot point in this novel.

Amazon UK describes the book like this: It is summer... a heat wave... tense, uneasy days in the city. There are ominous signs of political turbulance in the dying years of the twentieth century. Welfare benefits are under attack, but women are fighting back, using unorthodox weapons. Lynn Byers does not accept the government's demand for a return to 'womanly duties'. As desperate politicians use increasingly savage methods of control, she can no longer stand aside to watch. A classic of women's fiction.

[Emma]

Yes! Benefits it was. Thanks so much.