Induced abortion in today’s world

Abstract

The Author has examined the recent statistics concerning the legally induced abortion, registered in 25 selected countries in the world.

From a total population of 997 millions inhabitants, the cases of induced abortions were 6,126,000 during the year 1996. A formal decrease of 20% was recorded yearly between 1994 and 1996.

The changes were not similar for all the examined countries. The most intensive decrease was registered in the countries with previous highest incidence, especially those with experience of Soviet system or Marxian ideology.

The study reports the comparison of the abortive phenomenon with the birth rate, the infant mortality, the socio-economic conditions.

Invers correlation come in evidence between induced abortiveness rates and the “human development index” (UNDP), especially with the cultural level and the Goss National Product (GNP) per capita.

The Author supposes that in the more developed countries the decrease of registered abortiveness was related also to a larger use of contraceptive means. In the less developed countries of the ex-Soviet system, the attenuation of incidence of induced abortion can be connected with a mitigation of public power to coercive birth control. The A. suggests te working hypothesis that a large seeking f induced abortion, especially if repeated, is not only a consequence of economical and cultural misery, but also an important factor of moral, social, and economic depression. In the changing world induced abortion is still a persistent form of misery.