Abstract
Regional differences in abortion rates in OECD countries have decreased. However, it is not clear whether the convergence will continue or whether abortion rates will plateau at or near current levels in countries with complete statistics.
The analysis considers induced abortions from 1950 to 2012 in 27 OECD countries providing reliable abortion statistics. Developments in the abortion legislation and abortion trends were compared across countries.
The legal status of abortion was categorised using an eight-point scale for each country. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient test was applied to examine the association between the abortion rate and the degree of abortion liberalisation.
Our cross-national comparison shows that despite a convergent trend in abortion rates, differences in abortion laws continue to be reflected in abortion rates. Where contraception is widely available and some time has elapsed since liberal abortion legislation was introduced, the abortion rate is low.
However, not all countries see abortion rates fall to the same low level. The range of abortion rates tapers off at between 5 and 15 induced abortions per 1000 women aged 15-49 for countries that were assessed to have low potential for further decreases.
The remaining differences are culturally specific and should be reflected in health care policy.