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Friday, March 28, 2003
Induced (therapeutic) abortions
2000
Canadian women obtained 105,427 abortions in 2000, a slight decrease of 0.2% from 105,666 in 1999. The rate of abortion remained steady at 15.4 abortions per 1,000 women in both 1999 and 2000.
The ratio of the number of induced abortions per 100 live births increased from 31.3 in 1999 to 32.2 in 2000.
Induced abortions continued to be most common among women in their twenties, who accounted for 51% of all women who obtained an abortion in 2000. On average, 26 women out of every 1,000 in their twenties obtained an abortion.
From 1999 to 2000, induced abortion rates increased in all provinces except Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. Rates are based on induced abortions performed on Canadian residents in hospitals and clinics in Canada, as well as legal abortions obtained by Canadian women in the United States.
Information on methods and data quality available in the Integrated Meta Data Base: survey number 3209.
Selected tables for 1996 to 2000 are available in the Canadian Statistics module of Statistics Canada's web site (http://www.statcan.gc.ca).
Induced abortion data for 2000 were collected by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. For more information on the therapeutic abortion database, contact Media Relations (613-241-7860, ext. 4004), Canadian Institute for Health Information.
For information on long-term trends in induced abortions, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Paula Woollam (613-951-0879), Health Statistics Division.
| Therapeutic abortions, by province of residence, and rates per 1,000 female population |
| |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
1999 to 2000 |
1999 |
2000 |
| Number of abortions |
% change |
Rate per 1,000 women2 |
| Total1 |
110,331 |
105,666 |
105,427 |
-0.2 |
15.4 |
15.4 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
820 |
851 |
898 |
5.5 |
6.8 |
7.3 |
| Prince Edward Island |
149 |
145 |
158 |
9.0 |
4.8 |
5.2 |
| Nova Scotia |
2,053 |
1,917 |
1,989 |
3.8 |
9.1 |
9.5 |
| New Brunswick |
1,106 |
1,031 |
1,098 |
6.5 |
6.1 |
6.6 |
| Quebec |
31,673 |
30,722 |
31,125 |
1.3 |
18.9 |
19.4 |
| Ontario1 |
42,452 |
39,981 |
39,544 |
-1.1 |
15.4 |
15.1 |
| Manitoba |
3,447 |
3,517 |
3,366 |
-4.3 |
14.3 |
13.8 |
| Saskatchewan |
2,010 |
1,898 |
1,956 |
3.1 |
8.7 |
9.0 |
| Alberta |
10,355 |
10,188 |
10,432 |
2.4 |
14.7 |
14.9 |
| British Columbia |
15,482 |
14,642 |
14,009 |
-4.3 |
16.2 |
15.5 |
| Yukon |
150 |
111 |
135 |
21.6 |
14.6 |
18.2 |
| Northwest Territories |
292 |
238 |
281 |
18.1 |
23.2 |
27.8 |
| Nunavut |
... |
155 |
178 |
14.8 |
25.3 |
28.2 |
| US reporting |
297 |
231 |
215 |
-6.9 |
... |
... |
| Residence unknown |
45 |
39 |
43 |
10.3 |
... |
... |
| 1 | Caution should be taken when comparing 1999 and 2000 data to 1998 data. As of 1999, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care no longer maintains a system for the collection of detailed information on abortions performed in clinics in Ontario. Ontario now uses the billing system of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) to provide counts of clinic abortions to the Therapeutic Abortion Survey. As a result, information is no longer available for clinic abortions performed on non-residents of Ontario or on Ontario residents who do not submit a claim to OHIP. A comparison of the data collected using both sources for the years 1995 to 1998 shows that the new data source underestimated clinic abortions performed on Ontario residents by an average of 5.4% (950 cases) per year, or approximately 1% of all abortions performed in Canada. The new source does not include abortions performed on non-residents of Ontario that averaged 70 cases per year or 0.4% of total clinic abortions performed in Ontario. |
| 2 | Rates are calculated using female population aged 15 to 44 years. |
| ... | Not applicable. |
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