CONTEXT Abortion is highly restricted by law in Senegal. Although women seek care for abortion complications, no national estimate of abortion incidence exists. METHODS Data on postabortion care and abortion in Senegal were collected in 2013 using surveys of a nationally representative sample of 168 health facilities that provide postabortion care and of 110 professionals knowledgeable about ...

CONTEXT Unsafe abortion is an important health problem in Ethiopia; however, no national quantitative study of abortion incidence exists. In 2005, the penal code was revised to broaden the indications under which induced abortion is legal. It is important to measure the incidence of legal and illegal induced abortion after the change in the law. METHODS A nationally representative survey of a...

Antonio Bernabé-Ortiz and colleagues misleadingly assert that, although access to induced abortion services is legally restricted in Peru, the incidence of induced abortion is “as high as, or higher than, the estimated incidence in many countries where induced abortion is legal and safe.” The abortion rate (the number of abortions per 1000 women of reproductive age) is greatly influenced by a n...

Until recently, WHO operationally defined unsafe abortion as illegal abortion. In the past decade, however, the incidence of abortion by misoprostol administration has increased in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Access to safe surgical abortions has also increased in many such countries. An important effect of these trends has been that, even in an illegal environment, abortion is be...

CONTEXT National and state-level information about abortion incidence can help inform policies and programs intended to reduce levels of unintended pregnancy. METHODS In 2015-2016, all U.S. facilities known or expected to have provided abortion services in 2013 or 2014 were surveyed. Data on the number of abortions were combined with population data to estimate national and state-level aborti...

CONTEXT Because abortion laws in Mexico, which are generally highly restrictive, are determined by individual states, state-level data are essential for policymakers to make informed decisions. In addition, age-specific abortion estimates are needed, given societal concern about young women's risk for unwanted pregnancy and abortion. METHODS The Abortion Incidence Complications Method, an est...

BACKGROUND The recently promulgated 2010 constitution of Kenya permits abortion when the life or health of the woman is in danger. Yet broad uncertainty remains about the interpretation of the law. Unsafe abortion remains a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in Kenya. The current study aimed to determine the incidence of induced abortion in Kenya in 2012. METHODS The incidence ...

International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 62 were performed in Mexico in 2006, equivalent to an abortion rate of 33 per 1,000.5 To assess the impact of our methodological improvements on our estimates, we applied the 2009 methodology to the 2006 data. The new methodology yielded a somewhat higher abortion rate of 37 per 1,000 for 2006. This rate is only 2.1% lower than that f...

BACKGROUND Data of abortion incidence and trends are needed to monitor progress toward improvement of maternal health and access to family planning. To date, estimates of safe and unsafe abortion worldwide have only been made for 1995 and 2003. METHODS We used the standard WHO definition of unsafe abortions. Safe abortion estimates were based largely on official statistics and nationally repr...