Economic theory predicts that abortion laws affect sexual behavior since they change the marginal cost of having risky sex. We estimate the impact of abortion laws on sexual behavior by reported gonorrhea incidence. Our data panel includes 41 countries for which consistent gonorrhea data are available for 1980–2000. Compared with laws permitting abortion only to save the pregnant woman’s life o...

OBJECTIVE To determine the risks of short term adverse events in adolescent and older women undergoing medical abortion. DESIGN Population based retrospective cohort study. SETTING Finnish abortion register 2000-6. PARTICIPANTS All women (n = 27,030) undergoing medical abortion during 2000-6, with only the first induced abortion analysed for each woman. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence o...

CONTEXT Accurate measurement of induced abortion levels has proven difficult in many parts of the world. Health care workers and policymakers need information on the incidence of both legal and illegal induced abortion to provide the needed services and to reduce the negative impact of unsafe abortion on women's health. METHODS Numbers and rates of induced abortions were estimated from four s...

OBJECTIVE This review aims to provide the latest global and regional estimates of the incidence and trends in induced abortion, both safe and unsafe. A related objective is to document maternal mortality due to unsafe abortion. The legal context of abortion and the international discourse on preventing unsafe abortion are reviewed to highlight policy implications and challenges in preventing un...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the incidence of spontaneous abortion in a population of women in order to establish their risk of spontaneous abortion and the obstetric factors predisposing to it. DESIGN Prospective study of women recruited by radio and poster appeal and from hospital outpatient clinics. SETTING English provincial community. PATIENTS 630 Women from the general population intend...

Unwanted pregnancy represents a major cost of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states in 1969 and 1970 (and nationally in 1973), this cost was reduced. We predict that abortion legalization generated incentives leading to an increase in sexual activity, accompanied by an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Using Centers for Disease Control data on the in...

In a report published in the Bioethics section of the May 2012 issue of the journal Ginecología y Obstetricia de México, Most Holy Conception, et al. criticized an approach developed by the Guttmacher Institute to estimate the number and rate of induced abortions and complications from unsafe abortions in countries where the procedure is highly legally restricted. As Koch and colleagues note, t...

BACKGROUND Abortion is a public health concern because of its impact on maternal morbidity and mortality. Each year, about 79 million unintended pregnancies, excluding miscarriage, occur worldwide. More than half of these unintended pregnancies end in abortion. The purpose of this study was to determine the ever-event incidence of abortion (spontaneous and induced) and some related factors in a...

The risk of an unwanted pregnancy represents one of the major costs of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states during the late 1960s and early 1970s (and nationally with the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade), this cost was reduced as women gained the option of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. We predict that abortion legalization led to an increase in sexual a...