Abortion
The largest-ever global study of abortion (”Abortion: Worldwide Levels and Trends“) has found that restricting abortions has little effect on the number of pregnancies terminated. Rather, it drives women to seek illegal, often unsafe backstreet abortions leading to an estimated 67,000 deaths a year. A further 5m women require hospital treatment as a result of botched procedures.
In Africa and Asia, where abortion is generally either illegal or restricted, the abortion rate in 2003 was 29 per 1,000 women aged 15-44. This is almost identical to the rate in Europe — 28 — where legal abortions are widely available. Latin America, which has some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws, is the region with the highest abortion rate (31), while western Europe, which has some of the most liberal laws, has the lowest (12).
A woman’s likelihood of having an abortion is similar whether she lives in a rich country (26 per 1,000) or a poor or middle-income one (29).
The same point can be made by looking at those countries which have changed their laws. Between 1995 and 2005, 17 nations liberalised abortion legislation, while three tightened restrictions. The number of induced abortions nevertheless declined from nearly 46m in 1995 to 42m in 2003, resulting in a fall in the worldwide abortion rate from 35 to 29. The most dramatic drop — from 90 to 44 — was in former communist Eastern Europe, where abortion is generally legal, safe and cheap. This coincided with a big increase in contraceptive use.
According to a report published this month by Population Action International women in poor countries are 250 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women in rich ones.
A woman in Africa has a one in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth, compared with one in 3,800 for a woman in the rich world.