Facts and Figures

L.A. Times Archives

Jan. 24, 1995 12 AM PT

About 50 million abortions are performed worldwide each year, Population Action International estimates. But no one knows the exact number because more than one-third are probably illegal and half may take place outside a regular health-care system, according to the nonprofit U.S.-based group, which advocates universal access to family planning.

Religious views

Buddhism

Abortion is viewed as a “misdeed” but allowable under certain conditions. The happiness of “living human beings” may be considered against the “precious life” of the fetus.

Christianity

Roman Catholicism is the only large organized religion to hold that abortion is always a sin in God’s eyes. Some other Christian denominations are more lenient.

Hinduism

Traditional teaching indicates abortion is sinful. But some followers now believe that it fulfills a legitimate need: population control.

Islam

For centuries, abortion was viewed as a sin and illegal except to save the life of the mother. But the current picture isn’t clear. Some religious scholars allow it in situations of rape or family poverty, for instance.

Judaism

Abortion may be permitted in some situations, such as to save the life of the mother. In the Jewish state of Israel, abortion is technically illegal but many exemptions are allowed.

Source: Times staff report

Access to legal abortion

Country by country and by percent of world’s women affected by the different laws.

* 40% / early abortion on request

North America: Canada, United States

Latin America and the Caribbean: Cuba, Puerto Rico

Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Slovenia, Yugoslavia

Former Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Asia and Oceania: China, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam

Middle East: Turkey

Africa: Tunisia

* 21% / permitted for socio-medical and socioeconomic reasons

Europe: Finland, Britain, Hungary

Asia and Oceania: Australia, India, Japan, North Korea, Taiwan

Africa: Zimbabwe

* 16% / permitted for risks to the woman’s health, fetal defects, or in cases of rape or incest

Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago

Europe: Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland

Asia and Oceania: Hong Kong,. South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Thailand

Middle East: Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

Africa: Algeria, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe

* 18% / permitted only to save the life of the woman

Europe: Ireland

Latin America and the Caribbean: Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela

Asia and Oceania: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka

Middle East: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Zaire

* 5% / permitted only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman.

Latin America: Brazil and Mexico

Africa: Sudan

Sources: “Induced Abortion: A World Review, 1990 Supplement” and Population Action International. Data is from 1993.

What it costs

INDIA: $17.80. For a legal abortion, in a New Delhi family-planning clinic, at up to eight weeks pregnancy under a local anesthetic.

MEXICO: $30. Folk remedy, a secret herbal formula sold in Mexico City’s Sonora Market, to be brewed and drunk like tea, that supposedly induces spontaneous abortion.

ISRAEL: Free. Legal abortion, if performed due to a risk to the mother’s health or a fetus that is impaired. Paid national health insurance.

EGYPT: $65 to $95. Illegal abortion, at a clandestine Cairo clinic.

CHILE: $175 to $350. Illegal abortion, for a “scraping” by a midwife without medical education working in her home.

BRITAIN: About $368. Legal abortion, including medical examination, counseling and surgery.

U.S.: $296. Average cost of first-trimester, non-hospital abortion in 1993.

Source: Times staff reports and Alan Guttmacher Institute

Abortion Rates

Per 100 known pregnancies, which are defined as legal abortions plus live births.

Australia (1988): 20.4

Bulgaria (1987): 50.7

Canada (1987): 14.7

China (1987): 31.4