by Joyce Arthur
Copyright © October, 1999
Abstract: This paper outlines some of the harsh realities about the incidence and safety of legal versus illegal abortion in the modern world. Countries where abortion is legal are compared to countries where it is illegal to highlight the shocking injustice being done to women who do not have access to safe, legal abortion. That, and the tragedy of unwanted children, highlights the far-reaching health and social benefits of legalized abortion.
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Some Basic Information about Abortion Around the World
Abortion is probably the world's most common surgical procedure.
About 46 million abortions are performed every year, 20 million of them illegal.
Abortion is practiced widely by women all over the world, across all social classes, and regardless of laws against abortion.
Since the beginning of recorded history, abortion has been commonly practiced by almost all societies, including ancient China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and countless others. In fact, abortion could be called a fundamental aspect of human behaviour.
But because abortion is still illegal or restricted in many countries today, two out of every five abortions in the world are performed unsafely --
by an untrained provider or in an unclean setting.
Every year, about 78,000 women die from unsafe and illegal abortions. For every death caused by unsafe abortion, several women are injured or left infertile.
One-third of the world's women do not have access to legal or safe abortion, and these women die at the rate of 330 deaths per 100,000 abortion procedures.
In contrast, the death rate from legal abortion averages 0.7 deaths per 100,000 procedures.
Over 30% of women who have an unsafe abortion suffer serious complications, such as hemorrhaging, sepsis, or infertility.
In contrast, in countries where abortion is legal and safe, the complication rate is about 1-3%, and most of the complications are of a minor nature and do not require hospitalization.
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Many women who suffer complications from unsafe, illegal abortion are afraid to come in for medical treatment, so they suffer or die without ever being counted as an abortion statistic.
When they do make it to hospital, they take up to two-thirds of the maternity beds, and up to 50% of the hospital's maternity budget.
Obviously, this seriously compromises other maternity and emergency services.
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How did the world manage to arrive at this troubling state of affairs? After all, abortion has been generally legal throughout history. By 1986, 36 countries had liberal abortion laws, and as of 1997, an additional 10 developed and 9 developing countries had also eased their laws.
The driving forces behind liberalization, then and now, were the threat to public health of illegal abortion, increasing social support for women's rights, availability of modern contraceptives, concern for the equal treatment of both poor women and rich women, decreasing influence of organized religion, and in some countries, thalidomide babies and epidemics of rubella, which created an awareness of the need for legal abortion.
