title: Therapeutic abortions, Canada, 1970-1988.
abstract: A total of 66,251 therapeutic abortions were performed in hospitals in Canada in 1988, an increase of 4.1% from the 63,662 performed in 1987. The abortion rate per 1,000 women 15-44 years was 10.6% in 1988, up from 10.2% in 1987. The number of therapeutic abortions performed annually peaked at 66,319 in 1982. The abortion rate peaked at 11.6% in 1979. Looking at marital status at the time of abortion in 1988, 67% of the women were single, 22% were married and 11% were widowed, divorced, separated, or living common law. About 22% of the women were under 20 years of age, 54.4% were between 20-29 years, 21.5% were between 30-39 years and 2.2% were over 39 years of age. At the time of pregnancy termination, the gestation period was under 13 weeks for 89.6% of abortion cases. The gestation period was 13 weeks or more for 10.4% of abortion cases. The trend towards abortions performed in the early stages of pregnancy may be one of the reasons for a 50% drop in the abortion complication rate to 1.6% of abortions in 1988 from 3.2% of abortions in 1975.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wadhera
mesh_terms: D000032:Abortion, Therapeutic / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D008423:Maternal Age; D010298:Parity; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D012847:Single Person