Sparse and Incomplete
2000 Therapeutic Abortion Statistics Surface in 2003

By Lyn Smith

On Friday, March 28, 2003 The Daily website for Statistics Canada released the revised figures for therapeutic induced abortions in 1999 as well as the figures currently available for the year 2000. The foot-notes indicate that the Ontario figures for 1999 which had been previously withheld by the Ontario Ministry of Health are now available under a new system, making comparison of 1999 (and 2000 data) to that of previous years unworkable. 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 Ontario clinics but, instead, uses the billing system of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) to provide counts of clinic abortions to the Therapeutic Abortion Survey. This means that 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.

Once again, this change of approach for compiling and releasing Ontario statistics reinforces the declining quality of the information in the statistics survey. Since 1986, we have waited longer for the release of what was to be annual data, and each year the detailed records in the total database have diminished. For example, in the year 2000, of the 41,705 reported clinic abortions performed on Canadian women, only one province (Alberta) provided detailed records (age of mother, marital status, gestational age of child, etc.) for 4,780 clinic abortions (11.4% of total clinic abortions). Clinic abortions accounted for almost 40% of all abortions in 1999 and 2000. This means detailed reports are missing for a very large number of abortions.

Statistics Canada reports in the 2000 Therapeutic Abortion Survey that 105,427 hospital and clinic abortions were performed on Canadian women . This figure includes 215 reported by American states. An additional 242 induced abortions were performed on non-residents of Canada (214 in clinics). Again, even under the new system of reporting, Ontario led the field with 39,544 abortions and Quebec was second with 31,125 abortions.

Abortion Rates/Ratios

Although the number of abortions has decreased in this count, in actual fact the overall rate for Canadian women between 15-44 years of age remained steady at 15.4 abortions per 1,000 women in 1999 and 2000. In Quebec, however, the rate per 1000 women is 19.4, the Yukon is 18.2, the Northwest Territories is 27.8 and Nunavut is 28.2. Even more alarming is the number of induced abortions per 100 live births. Overall in Canada, 32.2 babies are aborted for every 100 live births . In Quebec there are 43.2 abortions for every 100 live births; in British Columbia there are 34.4 abortions for every 100 live births; and in the Northwest Territories there are 41.8 abortions for every 100 live births.

In 2001, Statistics Canada projected that there would be more deaths than births in Canada by 2025 ( National Post , Anne Marie Owens, March 13/01) due to a declining birth rate and an ageing population. This trend began in the 1970's (note: abortion was legalized in 1969 in Canada). The average fertility rate in Canada is 1.54 and the fertility rate is expected to drop to 1.48 births per woman by 2006. Families with fewer than two children are not replacing themselves. This phenomenon spans the developed world. According to George Will's article "Reweaving Frayed Relations " ( National Post , April 11/03), the estimated average European fertility rate is 1.34. This has resulted in a population collapse because a birthrate of 2.1 children per woman is the required replacement rate for population stability.

In a report by Millar, Wadhera and Henshaw for Family Planning Perspectives, 29:20-24, 1997, titled "Repeat Abortions in Canada, 1975 - 1993," it was estimated that if the 1993 abortion rate prevails, and it has, one Canadian woman in three (34%) will undergo an abortion in her reproductive lifetime. The 2003 population estimate for Canada is 31,499,560 and 50% are female. This represents over 5.2 million women who will destroy their child by induced abortion.

Demographic and Medical Details

The figures compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information and analysed by Health Statistics Division of Statistics Canada for 2000 provide such limited demographic and medical data that it is almost impossible to create a profile of the woman undergoing abortion or that of her child. Combining the available figures for selected detailed demographic and medical records of clinic abortions (41,705) and hospital abortions (63,507) in 2000 reveals that detailed records are now available for only 50,358 of the total 105,212 abortions - an all time low of 47.8%!

Even within the detailed records of the data base there are gaps. For example, under 'marital status' 37.5% are classified as unknown.

Using these incomplete figures, Stats Canada reports that 51% of the abortions were done on women with no previous deliveries and 35.8% of the women had at least one repeat abortion. Similarly, using the limited total detailed records: 36.7% of the babies were under 9 weeks gestation (18,481); 48.4% of the babies were 9 - 12 weeks gestation (24,373); 7% of the babies were 13-16 weeks gestation (3,525); 2.8% of the babies were over 18 weeks gestation (1,410) and 5.1% were of unknown gestation (2,568).

The age groupings for those undergoing an abortion once again start from 10 - 19 years (20.1%) and induced abortions continue to be most common among women in their twenties accounting for 51.7% of all women who obtained an abortion in 2000. Women in the 30-39 age grouping account for 24.6% of the abortions.

Complications: The average stay in hospitals and clinics is less than one day. Any immediate complications are reported as a first, second, and third complication for these categories: haemorrhage, infection, pelvic damage, retained products of conception (the most common), death, or 'other.' One hospital death occurred in both 1999 and 2000. Overall, 1.11% or 559 women had at least one initial complication. For abortions done at 17-20 weeks gestation and over 20 weeks gestation, the percentage distribution of complications rose tenfold. Subsequent complications which require a return visit to a hospital will not appear in the survey as 'abortion related.'

Why do we repeatedly have to request complete demographic and medical details for the most frequently performed surgical procedure in Canada? Pregnancy is not a disease. Induced abortion is an elective procedure which does not cure any medical condition. Rather, it interrupts a normal physiological process and poses long term health risks to the mother. When the Canadian Institute for Health Information was created in 1994, the responsibility for collecting the abortion data shifted to CIHI. A 15-member Board of Directors now links federal, provincial, and territorial governments with non-governmental, health-related groups. The Ontario Deputy Minister, Phil Hassen, serves on the Board as the Ontario Deputy Minister of Health and Long Term Care. The Chief Statistician for Canada, Dr. Ivan Fellegi, also serves on this Board, and in October 1996, he stated in correspondence that CIHI would "fill in the data gaps found in the current system"! It is not a lack of funding which prohibits this becoming a reality (consult their website minutes); and the many technological advances in information gathering should actually expedite the CIHI mandate "to co-ordinate the development and maintenance of a comprehensive and integrated approach to health information for Canada...to establish sound health policy...effectively generating public awareness about factors affecting good health."

Why abortion statistics are vital

Why are accurate and comprehensive abortion statistics so vital? Abortion is characterized as a "health" issue. We need to know why so many women are unable to carry their pregnancies to term. Other compelling reasons for comprehensive (but always anonymous) data are: for conducting demographic analysis and economic forecasts; for understanding immigration requirements and the social and economic relationships between abortion and marital/non-marital status; and for conducting medical research on such crucial female health matters as infertility, sterility, post-abortion trauma, and long-term psychological and physical complications incurred as a result of one or more abortions. This research should be accompanied by an honest and objective examination of the established link between induced abortion and an increased risk of developing breast cancer. (The 2003 Canadian Cancer Society statistics show that since 1988, breast cancer incidence rates have risen by 10%, and they estimate that 21,200 new cases of breast cancer in women will be diagnosed in 2003).

What the last 30 years of abortion statistics do show is that we as a society have sanctioned the deaths of over 2 million Canadian babies (2,376,332).

Abortion statistics can be viewed at Statistics Canada's website, www.statcan.ca

Lyn Smith, formerly of Action Life (Ottawa), has done extensive investigation into abortion statistics and the link between abortion and breast cancer. She lives in Cobourg, Ontario.