As I promised, this is the estimated number of legal and illegal abortions in the World.
(Source: International Family Planning Perspectives, vol.13, no.1 - March 1987 - The Alan Guttmacher Institute - "Induced Abortion: A Worldwide Perspective" By Stanley K. Henshaw).
Number of legal abortions, abortion rate, abortion ratio and total abortion rate, selected countries
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Country No. of Abortion Abortion total abort-
abortions rate ratio ion rate
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Australia(1984) 54,600 15.2 18.5 u
Bangladesh
(1984-1985) 68,600 3.4 1.5 u
Bulgaria (1984) 113,500 61.9 48.1 u
Canada (1984) 62,300 10.2 14.2 288
(1982) 77,500 13.0 17.2 u
China*(1983) 14,371,800 61.5 43.1 u
Cuba (1984) 139,600 58.6 45.9 u
Czechoslovakia
(1984) 113,800 34.5 33.8 1,005
Denmark (1984) 20,700 18.4 28.6 554 (1983)
England Wales £
(1984) 136,400 12.8 17.3 367
Finland (1983) 13,400 12.1 16.8 362
France*,**(1984) 177,000 14.9 18.9 u
German Democratic
Republic (1984) 96,200 26.6 29.7 708 (1976)
German Federal
Republic* (1984) 97,900 7.3 14.4 u
Greenland (1983) 580 44.7 37.1 u
Hong Kong (1984) 14,500 11.3 15.8 u
Hungary (1984) 82,200 37.1 40.9 1,004 (1983)
Iceland (1983) 690 12.9 14.0 u
India* (1983-84) 518,600 3.3 2.1 u
Israel (1984) 18,900 21.9 16.1 u
Italy* (1984) 227,400 19.0 28.0 u
Japan (1983) 567,500 21.5 27.2 u
(1975) 2,250,000 84.2 54.7 u
Netherlands (1984) 18,700 5.6 9.7 161
New Zealand (1984) 7,300 9.7 12.4 272 (1983)
Norway (1984) 14,100 15.9 21.9 465
Poland* (1984) 133,000 16.5 16.0 u
Romania* (1983) 421,400 90.9 56.7 u
Scotland* (1984) 9,900 8.9 13.2 236 (1983)
Singapore* (1983) 19,100 28.1 32.0 792
South Africa* (1982) 1,000 0.2 0.1 u
Sweden (1984) 30,800 17.7 24.7 534
Tunisia (1985) 21,300 13.6 8.9 617 (1977)
USSR*,***(1982) 11,000,000 181 68 u
U.S. (1983) 1,575,000 28.5 30.4 790
Vietnam* (1980) 170,600 14.6 8.1 u
Yugoslavia (1984) 358,300 70.5 48.8 u
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* Data are believed to be at least 20 percent inaccurate or are unknown accuracy
** Provisional
*** All data come from survey-derived abortion ratios (abortions per live births)
£ Includes women who obtained abortions in England
Note:
Abortion rate is number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44. Abortion ratio is number of abortions per 100 known pregnancies (abortions plus births that occurred six months later). Total abortion rate is number of abortions that would be experienced by 1,000 women during their reproductive lifetimes, given present age-specific abortion rates.
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The author of article, Stanley K. Henshaw, write that "approximately 33 million legal abortions are performed in the world each year. China and Soviet Union are the two nations in which the most abortions are performed annually - about 14 million an 11 million, respectively.
However, because of uncertainty about the reliability of the statistics for these two countries, the total number of legal abortions performed in a year might be as low as 30 million or as high as 40 million. Adding the estimated number of illegal abortions to this would increase the world total to between 40 and 60 million abortions per year".
Henshaw observes that the high rate of abortions in the USSR is due to the scarcity of contraceptives on the market.
The author finally observes that in the countries where legal abortion has been introduced, mortality from abortion practices has drastically diminished (he refers to the example of Czechoslovakia and Hungary where the abortion mortality rate decreased respectively by 56% and 38%, when less restrictive legislation on abortion was introduced in the 1950s.
In the light of the data available, I think one could say that in the developed countries and everywhere where the use of anti-contraceptive means is widespread, the number of abortions is relatively contained and progressively decreases with the years. On the other hand, where these means are not advertised or are not available on the market, (in the USSR for example, profilactics are practically impossible to find), abortion is practiced as a means of birth control.
