Reports on Population/Family Planning Number 14 December 1973 A PUBLICATION OF THE POPULATION COUNCIL, 245 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10017, U.S.A. Induced Abortion: CHRISTOPHER TIETZE ABSTRACT This report presents an overview of current international data on induced abortion, primarily from the demographic and public health points of view. The report does not attempt to review all that has been written on the subject, or even all that has been written by competent scholars; rather, it marshals comprehensive observations based on well-defined statistical concepts. Statistical tabulations make up the major part of the report, with the text providing background information. Opening sections review definitions, sources of data, standard forms of statistical analysis, and the relationship of abortion and contraception. Major topics for which data are presented include incidence of abortion (Tables 1-3), legal abortions by age of woman, parity, and marital status (Tables 4-12), incidence of repeat abortions (Tables 13-15), period of gestation and abortion procedures (Tables 16-19), incidence of abortion with concurrent sterilization (Table 20); total and major complications (Tables 21-23); and mortality (Tables 24-27). Data are discussed in the context of country policies toward abortion. The effects of changes in abortion policies on trends in the numbers of legal abortions, illegal abortions, total induced abortions, and births and contraceptive practice are evaluated in the final section. THE AUTHORS Christopher Tietze, M.D., is associate director in the Biomedical Division of the Population Council. Deborah Dawson, formerly a research assistant in the Biomedical Division, is currently a research assistant at the Center for Population Research, Georgetown University. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to thank the many colleagues, both here and abroad, who have helped us by making available unpublished statistics on abortion, not all of whom we have been able to acknowledge. Special thanks are due to the International Reference Center for Abortion for permission to use their material (26) in the preparation of Appendix B. We also thank Sarah Lewit for her careful editing of the manuscript and Corley Simpson and Kenneth Hines for their secretarial assistance Constraints of time have forced us to ignore many aspects of the subject that deserve discussion It is our hope that at least some of these aspects will be covered in a later edition of this report We are aware of the controversial nature of the subject of abortion, and we have made every effort to remain objective in the presentation of the data. It is our belief and hope that this report will help readers to weigh the facts concerning abortion and to review their own positions in the light of the data 1974 BY THE POPULATION COUNCIL, INC. ERRATUM "Induced Abortion: A Factbook" Reports on Population/Family Planning, no. 14 (December 1973) In Appendix A (page 50), the first paragraph and the text table should read as shown below. The corrected words are printed in bold face. APPENDIX A ESTIMATED DISTRIBUTION OF ABORTIONS AND LIVE BIRTHS BY WOMEN'S AGE AT CONCEPTION The "de-aging" of women having abortions was carried out by the following procedures. For three countries where numbers of abortions were available by single years of age at abortion (Czechoslovakia 1967 and 1968, England and Wales 1969 and 1970, United States JPSA data) the numbers for each year were divided into quarters using an osculatory formula suggested by Professor Nathan Keyfitz. Five-year age groups were aggregated and the percentages of abortions falling within the first three months of each five-year age group were estimated. (The abortions in the first three months approximate those pregnancies that were conceived while the woman was in the next younger age group and that must be shifted to the younger group in converting to age at conception.) The ratio of abortions in each five-year age group compared with the next older five-year age group was also computed. Thus for each country and year the following data were created: Note: The abortion ratios shown in Table 6 on pages 22-23 were computed by the correct procedure. ERRATA SHEET INDUCED ABORTION: A FACT BOOK Reports on Population/Family Planning, Number 14 (December 1973) Page 1 The acknowledgement on line 4 of page 1 should be to the Page 8 The total abortion rate per woman in Table 1 for Black women in California should be 1.05 for 1970/71 and 1.36 for 1971/72 rather then 10.5 and 13.6, respectively. Page 14 Page 36 deleted. Page 37 References 110, 113, and 114 should be deleted from footnote 14. The word "five" in the last line of the third column should be The percentages of legal abortion with concurrent sterilization by prior births in the United States, 1970/71 should be: Page 49 The last two lines in the first numbered paragraph should read, "little effect on the number of illegal abortions." Page 50 The penultimate sentence in the first paragraph of Appendix A should be, "The ratio of abortions in each five-year age group compared with the next older five-year age group was also computed." Page 51 - The third column in the text table at the top of the page should read: Note: The abortion ratios shown in Table 6 on pages 22-23 were computed correctly. -2 Page 51 The reference numbers in Appendix B should be 26 and 40 rather than 27 and 128, respectively. Page 51 Abortion on social grounds in the Republic of Korea is not legal, as shown in the Table, Countries Where Abortion is Legal on Extended Grounds. Page 53 The first reference 22 should be reference 21. Reference 38A should be Finland: Central Statistical Office. |