Abortion rates/ratios: What do they tell us?

 By Barbara McAdorey

Breakdown by area of residence

While the vast majority of abortions are performed on women from Ontario (39,544), it must be remembered that Ontario is the most populated province, and so it would be expected that Ontario would account for most abortions.

In order to make meaningful comparisons between areas that differ in population counts (in other words, "to compare apples with apples"), statisticians look at abortion rate , that is, the number of abortions per 1000 women in the population. Ontario women have abortions at the rate of 15.1 abortions per 1000 women - a rate which closely matches the national average (15.4). Yet Nunavut and the Northwest Territories (which have far fewer abortions at 178 and 281 respectively) have by far the highest abortion rates in Canada (28.2 and 27.8 respectively). Quebec women have the next highest rate at 19.4 (and account for almost as many total abortions as Ontario at 31,125), followed by the Yukon (18.2), then British Columbia (15.5), then Ontario (15.1).

PEI has the lowest abortion rate (5.2 per 1000 women) and is second only to the Yukon for the lowest number of abortions (158). New Brunswick has the second lowest abortion rate at 6.6 abortions per 1000 women, followed by Newfoundland and Labrador at 7.3.

Why are such high proportions of women in the territories having abortions? What is it about women in Atlantic Canada that makes them choose abortion at a much lower rate than the national average?

The abortion rate tells us how many abortions there are per 1000 women in a population, pregnant or not. It doesn't tell us what proportion of pregnancies are ending in abortion. This means that if we look only at abortion rates when comparing the abortion situation across provinces/territories, it is impossible to tell if an area's higher rate is due to there simply being more pregnancies in that area compared to other areas, or if it is due to a higher proportion of pregnancies, in fact, being aborted. This is where abortion ratio comes in, the number of abortions per 100 live births.

As high as Nunavut's abortion rate is (28.2), Nunavut women have only 24.5 abortions for every 100 live births compared to the Canadian average of 32.2. This would mean, then, that the higher abortion rate in Nunavut compared to the rest of the country reflects a higher pregnancy rate to begin with.

Quebec, on the other hand, has a staggering 43.2 abortions per 100 live births. NWT's ratio is almost as high as Quebec at 41.8. Next is the Yukon (36.5) followed by BC (34.4). Although women from Ontario account for more abortions than other women, they are actually aborting a slightly smaller proportion of their pregnancies (31.0) than the national average (32.2). (Since stats do not include clinic abortions on Ontario residents who do not submit a claim to OHIP, numbers are not completely accurate - so all we can do is analyze the date we do have.)

Although high proportions of pregnancies are being aborted by women in NWT and the Yukon, the actual numbers of abortions are small compared to Quebec. Not only are abortion ratios and rates high for the women of Quebec, so are actual numbers. This is distressing. Educational groups need to understand the reasons so many Quebec women are choosing abortion and need to determine what can be done to turn the tide.

Both Ontario and BC are also cause for concern. Ontario's abortion rate and ratio are not as high as BC's, but given Ontario's large population, huge numbers of Ontario babies are being aborted.

Like abortion rates, abortion ratios are lowest in PEI (11.0) and New Brunswick (14.9). Saskatchewan is slightly higher at 16.1, but still half the national average of 32.2. It is important to understand why so many more women from these provinces compared to women from other areas of the country are choosing birth instead of abortion. Such an understanding might better equip the abortion-prone areas to encourage their women to also "choose life."

It is interesting to note that, according to Stats Canada, there are no abortion clinics in PEI or Saskatchewan, and PEI hospitals perform abortions only in emergencies. One wonders if such situations are helping to influence pregnant women in these areas to give birth.

Breakdown by age group

Women aged 20-24 have by far the greatest number of abortions (32,561). They also have the highest abortion rate (31.9 ).

Yet the abortion ratio for 20-24 year-olds, although high, (54.7 abortions for every 100 live births meaning 35.4% of pregnancies are aborted), is much lower than the abortion ratio for teenagers. This higher abortion rate and lower abortion ratio of the 20-24 year-olds would mean that a lot more 20-24 year-olds than teenagers are becoming pregnant, and when they do, they are more likely than the teenagers to give birth. It is because there are so many pregnancies in the first place that the abortion rate ends up being higher.

Girls under the age of 15 have 254.2 abortions for every 100 births, meaning 71.8% of their pregnancies end in abortion! This means a pregnant girl under 15 is about two and half times more likely to abort than to bring her child to term. It also means the chances she will abort her pregnancy are about double that of a pregnant 20-24 year old (who, as stated above, has a 35.4% chance of aborting). The good news is that the total number of abortions and abortion rate for girls under 15 is very low. This means, compared to the other groups, very few girls under 15 will become pregnant. But the bad news is, when they do, they are likely to have an abortion.

Although the abortion ratio for the 15-19 year olds (117.7 abortions per 100 live births) is about half that for the under 15 group, this age group is still aborting more babies than it brings to term. And this age group accounts for a large number of abortions (20,426) and a high abortion rate (20.2 per 1000 girls aged 15-19) - meaning that large numbers of 15-19 year olds are getting pregnant, and large numbers are aborting.

It is a huge concern that pregnant teenagers are choosing abortion more often than birth, and doing so in large numbers. We need to understand why . Does our society really believe that teenagers are equipped to make such permanent, life-altering decisions which could scar them the rest of their lives?

Or is someone else doing the "choosing" for them- BM