A new study provides the proof of what many have already known to be true: Restricting the availability of legal abortion services does not reduce the number of women attempting to end unwanted pregnancies. In fact, the survey conducted by the Guttmacher Institute found that abortion occurs at roughly the same rate in regions regardless of legality — including geographic areas in which access to abortion is severely restricted.
What does appear to make a difference in the overall abortion rate, however, is access to contraception, which the study found had cut abortion rates in half during the last decade.
Worldwide, the rate of unsafe abortion has not decreased at the same pace as that of safe procedures. The estimated global number of safe abortions fell from 25.6 million in 1995 to 21.9 million in 2003, and the rate declined from 20 to 15 per 1,000. In contrast, the estimated number of unsafe abortions changed very little–from 19.9 million in 1995 to 19.7 million in 2003.
But the study is also quick to point out that the only thing that is truly accomplished by more restrictive laws regarding abortion is a higher maternal death rate.
Pregnancy termination is a universal practice: It occurs in all parts of the world–east and west, developed and developing, rich and poor–and among women of all types, single and married, adolescent and older. However, in less developed regions that have restrictive abortion laws, many women–especially those who are poor and cannot pay for safe procedures–end unwanted pregnancies themselves, or at the hands of unskilled personnel using unsafe methods. By doing so, they risk their health and even their lives.
