UN publishes world abortion information

World Abortion Policies 2007 provides up-to-date information on the legal status of induced abortion for the 195 Member and non-Member States of the United Nations. 

To complement this information, data on abortion rates, contraceptive prevalence, total fertility and maternal mortality are also provided. The information below is reproduced from the wall chart presenting the UN’s findings.

The overwhelming majority of countries, 97 per cent, permit abortion to save the woman’s life. In five countries, abortion is not permitted. Abortion laws and policies are significantly more restrictive in the developing world. In developed countries, abortion is permitted for economic or social reasons in 78 per cent of countries and on request in 67 per cent of countries. In contrast, 19 per cent of developing countries permit abortion for economic or social reasons, while in 15 per cent of developing countries abortion is available on request.

Many countries have additional procedural requirements that must be met before an abortion may be legally performed. Additional requirements may relate to the gestational limits within which abortion may be performed, mandatory waiting period, parental or spousal consent, third-party authorisation, the categories of health providers permitted to perform abortions, the types of medical facilities where abortions may be performed and mandatory counselling. In addition, even when abortion is legally permitted, access to abortion services may be limited.

It is important to point out that up-to-date information on the status of abortion policy is not readily available for all countries. The information for some countries is either incomplete or unclear. Readers are therefore invited to provide information, comments or corrections they deem useful to the Director, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York, NY 10017. The data included in the chart were based on information available as of 31 December 2006.

Grounds on which abortion is permitted

A total of seven grounds on which abortion is permitted are identified:

Each of these grounds is described below.

(1) To save the woman’s life. The performance of abortion is most commonly permitted on the grounds of saving the life of the woman. Although some countries provide detailed lists of what they consider life-threatening situations, in general, these situations are not explicitly specified and are therefore left to the judgement of the physician or physicians performing or approving the abortion. The overwhelming majority of countries, 97 per cent in the less developed regions and 96 per cent in the more developed regions, either explicitly permit abortion to be performed when a pregnancy threatens a woman’s life or allow it under the general criminal law principle of necessity. Exceptions include Chile, El Salvador, the Holy See, Malta and Nicaragua, all of which have provisions restricting the performance of abortion. However, even in these countries, it is unclear whether a defence of necessity would be rejected by a court in serious cases involving a threat to the life of a pregnant woman.

(2) To preserve physical health. In the majority of countries, abortion is permitted when it is necessary to preserve the physical health of the woman. The term ‘physical health’, however, has been defined in a number of different ways. In some countries, the definition is narrow, often encompassing lists of conditions that are considered to fall under this category; in other countries, the term “physical health” is broadly defined, allowing room for interpretation. In the more developed regions, 88 per cent of countries permit abortion to preserve physical health, compared to 60 per cent of countries in the less developed regions.

(3) To preserve mental health. Many countries specifically provide for the legal performance of abortions in cases involving a threat to the mental health of the pregnant woman. What constitutes a threat to ‘mental health,’ however, varies significantly. In some countries, the abortion law does not specify whether the term ‘health’ encompasses both physical and mental health, but merely provides that an abortion is permitted when it averts a risk of injury to the woman’s health. In such cases, since the law does not make a distinction, both physical and mental health grounds have been coded as permitted. Eighty-six per cent of countries in the more developed regions allow abortion to protect the mental health of the woman, whereas fifty-seven per cent of countries in the less developed regions have adopted such laws.

(4) Rape or incest. Permitting abortion in cases of rape or incest is a common provision. Even in countries with restrictive laws, abortion is often allowed on those grounds. Some countries specifically mention rape or incest in their legislation. Other countries refer to these as cases in which the pregnancy is the result of ‘a criminal offence’, with no specification of the nature of the offence. In other countries, abortions are permitted only in the case of the rape of a woman with mentally impaired functions. While 84 per cent of countries in the more developed regions have laws that permit abortion in case of rape or incest, 37 per cent of countries in the less developed regions have such laws.

(5) Fetal impairment. Abortions are often permitted on the grounds of fetal impairment, even in countries with restrictive abortion legislation. Several countries specify the type and level of impairment necessary to justify an abortion. In the more developed regions, 84 per cent of countries permit abortions because of fetal impairment, whereas 32 per cent of countries in the less developed regions do so.

(6) Economic or social reasons. The laws permitting abortions on socio-medical, economic or social grounds vary widely. Some laws specifically mention economic or social conditions while others only imply them. Most laws that permit abortion on economic or social grounds are interpreted quite liberally and, in practice, differ little from laws that allow abortion on request. While 78 per cent of countries in the more developed regions have laws permitting abortion on economic or social grounds, 19 per cent of countries in the less developed regions allow abortion on the same grounds.

(7) On request. In countries that allow abortion on request, a woman seeking an abortion is not required to justify her desire to have an abortion under the law. In a number of countries, she may be required to state that she is in a situation of crisis or distress. Sixty-seven per cent of countries in the more developed regions have adopted such laws, whereas fifteen per cent of countries in the less developed regions make abortion available
on request. For purposes of this chart, if an abortion can be authorised on request, it is assumed that an abortion can be performed during the period when it is authorised on any other of the grounds listed, even if the law does not explicitly mention such grounds.

Abortion rate.

Accurate information on induced abortion is difficult to obtain in many countries. In countries where abortion is legal under broad conditions, statistics on abortion are collected and are of reasonable completeness and accuracy. In other countries, official data are lacking or are incomplete. A common problem is that some privately performed abortion procedures go unreported and are therefore not reflected in the statistics available. Also, some countries may include spontaneous abortions in the number of reported abortions. In countries where abortion is restricted, official statistics are generally not available or highly incomplete.

Information on the number of abortions is available for 61 countries. Abortion rates in 26 of those 61 countries range from 10 to 20 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years; 16 countries have abortion rates above 20 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, while 19 countries have an abortion rate below 10 abortions per 1,000 women.

Contraceptive prevalence. The use of contraception has been increasing steadily. Worldwide, 61 per cent of women who are married or in union use some contraceptive method and 54 per cent use a modern contraceptive method. In the less developed regions contraceptive prevalence averages currently 59 per cent among women who are married or in union and it averages 69 per cent in the more developed regions.

Total fertility.

Total fertility measures the number of births a woman would have during her lifetime if she were to follow current age-specific fertility rates. In 2000-2005, total fertility at the world level stood at 2.6 births per woman. Total fertility was estimated to be 2.9 births per woman in the less developed regions and 1.6 births per woman in the more developed regions. Total fertility is greater than 5 births per woman in 35 of the 148 developing countries. Overall, the countries with fertility higher than 5 births per woman account for 10 per cent of the world population.

Maternal mortality.

Maternal mortality is a major concern in the world and in particular in less developed regions. The improvement of maternal health is one of the eight goals included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Of the estimated 529,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2000, 68,000 deaths were reported to be due to complications of unsafe abortion. In 2000, the maternal mortality ratio was 442 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in the less developed regions. In contrast, the maternal mortality ratio was 20 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in the more developed regions.

World Abortion Policies 2007 is published by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.