[Incidence rate of late complications in legally induced abortion in the Federal Republic of Germany (author's transl)].

The article goes into the question as to whether and to what extent legally induced abortion can exercise a detrimental influence on later pregnancies in the form of late complication; this problem was investigated by means of the stratified sample technique. A few statistically significant observations were made leading to the conclusion that legally induced abortion does involve late complications in subsequent pregnancies. The study was performed in 650 women demonstrating certain disturbances during pregnancy or birth, and an equal number of women in whom parturition occurred without disturbances after uncomplicated pregnancy; the study period extended from March 1980 to July 1980 and was conducted in various large obstetrico-gynaecological departments in Federal German hospitals. It was found that legally induced abortion was a statistically more frequent precedent to abdominal pregnancy, retarded abortion, cervical insufficiency or imminent premature births, than among the women of the control group (p less than 0.001). The method employed to induce abortion (suction abrasio, etc.) less important for the occurrence of complications than the length of gestation at the time abortion was induced. In induced abortions beyond the 8th week, late complications are significantly more frequent than in women in whom abortion had been induced before the end of the 8th week (p less than 0.01).