Abortion: world dimensions of the phenomenon

Epidemiological and demographic aspects: social and bioethical considerations

Abstract

Concentrating on the debate on how ethical the so called “therapeutic abortion” is leads to the risk of neglecting the far more consistent and widespread reality regarding legal abortion, not for medical reasons, but out of a free personal choise (abortion), or for demografic birth control (“social” abortion).

In this paper the author proposed to give a global vision of the phenomenon of abortion from a basically statistical point of view, which provides greater knowledge of the epidemiological dimensions and the planetary extension of abortion and points out its relationship with both the demographic evolution and the perspectives of limiting it, and prevention.

Abortion is in fact an acquisition of current customs in broad sections of the population in many countries, while it is passed over in, unjustified but significant, silence in other countries. The author considers that the cultural evolution will very probably lead to drawing attention to the uncouth and inhuman character of abortion, as has been demonstrated for other social problems. The objective knowledge of the medical and social problem of abortion certainly encourage laws and programmes which will aim to limit it as much as possible and to eliminate it, but it is a slow, progressive evolution which is determined, before laws are passed, by the maturity of the populations’ civil, moral and health conscience.