title: The association between education and induced abortion for three cohorts of adults in Finland.
abstract: This paper explores whether the likelihood of abortion by education changed over time in Finland, where comprehensive family planning services and sexuality education have been available since the early 1970s. This subject has not previously been studied longitudinally with comprehensive and reliable data. A unique longitudinal set of register data of more than 250,000 women aged 20-49 born in 1955-59, 1965-69, and 1975-79 was analysed, using descriptive statistics, concentration curves, and discrete-time event-history models. Women with basic education had a higher likelihood of abortion than others and the association grew stronger for later cohorts. Selection into education may explain this phenomenon: although it was fairly common to have only basic education in the 1955-59 cohort, it became increasingly unusual over time. Thus, even though family planning services were easily available, socio-economic differences in the likelihood of abortion remained.
authors.affiliation: a London School of Economics and Political Science.
authors.forename: Heini
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Väisänen
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D012042:Registries
keywords: Finland; event-history analysis; induced abortion; register data; reproductive health