Washington, Oct 14 (DPA) The number of abortions worldwide has declined in recent years as access to contraception has increased, according to a report released Tuesday by a US think tank that studies sexual and reproductive health.
Abortions declined to 41.6 million in 2003 from 45.5 million in 1995 – a drop to 29 per 1,000 women from 35, the report by the Guttmacher Institute said.
Still the decline in abortions had not greatly affected the number of unsafe abortions performed, which remained relatively flat from 19.9 million to 19.7 million during the period.
The largest declines in abortion rates came in former Soviet bloc nations, as women relied less on terminating their pregnancies to manage family size, the study said. Still rates there remain high. The abortion rate fell in Russia to 45 per 1,000 women from 69 and in Estonia from 56 to 22. In Cuba, abortion rates fell to 57 per 1,000 from 78.
The decline came as unintended pregnancies dropped from 69 per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 in 1995 to 55 unintended pregnancies in 2008.
The percentage of married women using contraception increased to 63 percent in 2003 from 54 percent in 1990. The report did not provide statistics for unmarried women, but said contraception use had also risen in that group.
