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The Kaiser Network wrote:International News | Abortion Rates Similar in Countries That Legalize, Prohibit Procedure, Study Says
[Oct 12, 2007]

Abortion rates are similar in countries where the procedure is legal and in countries where it is not, and the number of abortions worldwide is declining due to increased access to contraception, according to a study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization and published Friday in the Lancet, the New York Times reports. The study also found that abortions were "safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely," according to the Times (Rosenthal, New York Times, 10/12).

For the study, Gilda Sedgh of the Guttmacher Institute and colleagues from WHO examined abortion trends from 1995 to 2003 in developed and developing countries where the procedure is legal and prohibited (Cheng, AP/Google.com, 10/11). The researchers used national data for countries where abortion was legal and estimated abortion rates from countries where it is illegal, using data on hospital admissions for abortion complications, interviews with local family planning experts and surveys of women in those countries, the Times reports (New York Times, 10/12).

The study found that the number of abortions worldwide has decreased from about 46 million in 1995 to about 42 million in 2003. The majority of abortions, 35 million, occurred in developing countries, and 97% of all unsafe abortions -- those performed either by people without the necessary skills or in a setting that does not conform to minimum medical standards -- were performed in low-income countries, the study found (AP/Google.com, 10/11). About 20 million unsafe abortions were performed each year, and about 67,000 women died from complications from those abortions, mostly in countries where the procedure is banned, according to the study.

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