Sedgh Gilda, Henshaw Stanley K, Singh Susheela, Bankole Akinrinola, Drescher Joanna
Guttmacher Institute, New York, USA.
Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2007 Dec;39(4):216-25. doi: 10.1363/3921607.
Information on abortion levels and trends can inform research and policies affecting maternal and reproductive health, but the incidence of legal abortion has not been assessed in nearly a decade.
Statistics on legal abortions in 2003 were compiled for 60 countries in which the procedure is broadly legal, and trends were assessed where possible. Data sources included published and unpublished reports from official national reporting systems, questionnaires sent to government agencies and nationally representative population surveys. The completeness of country estimates was assessed by officials involved in data collection and by in-country and regional experts.
In recent years, more countries experienced a decline in legal abortion rates than an increase, among those for which statistics are complete and trend data are available. The most dramatic declines were in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where rates remained among the highest in the world. The highest estimated levels were in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, where surveys indicate that women will have close to three abortions each, on average, in their lifetimes. The U.S. abortion rate dropped by 8% between 1996 and 2003, but remained higher than rates in many Northern and Western European countries. Rates increased in the Netherlands and New Zealand. The official abortion rate declined by 21% over seven years in China, which accounted for a third of the world's legal abortions in 1996. Trends in the abortion rate differed across age-groups in some countries.
The abortion rate varies widely across the countries in which legal abortion is generally available and has declined in many countries since the mid-1990s.
有关堕胎水平和趋势的信息可为影响孕产妇和生殖健康的研究及政策提供参考，但近十年来尚未对合法堕胎的发生率进行评估。
汇总了2003年60个堕胎普遍合法国家的合法堕胎统计数据，并尽可能评估了趋势。数据来源包括国家官方报告系统发布和未发布的报告、发给政府机构的问卷以及具有全国代表性的人口调查。国家估计数的完整性由参与数据收集的官员以及国内和区域专家进行评估。
近年来，在统计数据完整且有趋势数据的国家中，合法堕胎率下降的国家多于上升的国家。降幅最大的是东欧和中亚，这些地区的堕胎率仍位居世界最高之列。估计水平最高的是亚美尼亚、阿塞拜疆和格鲁吉亚，调查显示，这些国家的女性一生中平均每人会有近三次堕胎经历。1996年至2003年间，美国的堕胎率下降了8%，但仍高于许多北欧和西欧国家。荷兰和新西兰的堕胎率上升。中国的官方堕胎率在七年内下降了21%，1996年中国的合法堕胎数占全球的三分之一。在一些国家，不同年龄组的堕胎率趋势有所不同。
在堕胎普遍合法的国家中，堕胎率差异很大，自20世纪90年代中期以来，许多国家的堕胎率都有所下降。
