Significantly fewer abortions in 2012

Number of abortions decreases by 5.5 percent

13.12.2012

The number of abortions in Germany fell by 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2012 compared to the same period of the previous year. According to information from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) „In the third quarter of 2012, about 25,500 abortions were reported in Germany“, around 1,500 less than in the third quarter of 2011.

A large proportion (74 percent) of the women who had a termination of pregnancy in the third quarter of 2012 were between the ages of 18 and 34, Destatis reports. 15 percent of the women were between 35 and 39 years old and eight percent were 40 or older. Abortions among under-18s accounted for less than four percent. Almost all abortions (97 percent) were „made according to the counseling scheme“, so the message of the Federal Statistical Office. In three percent of the cases, medical and criminological indications had been the reason for the abortion.

Continuous drop in abortions
In the past ten years, except for 2004, there has been a continuous decline in abortions. Of the 130,387 abortions in 2002, the number fell to 108,867 abortions in 2011 according to the Federal Statistical Office. Although the number of pregnancies has also fallen in parallel, there are indications that more women choose to keep their child during pregnancy. It is possible that the proportion of unwanted pregnancies has declined in recent years, but this can not be deduced from the data of the Federal Statistical Office. Of the women who had abortions, 40 percent had no live birth before surgery.

In most cases (69 percent), abortion was performed using the vacuum aspiration method, and 16 percent used Mifegyne®, according to the latest Destatis release. As a rule, the procedure was performed on an outpatient basis, with 80 percent of the pregnant women performing this in a gynecological practice, reports the Federal Statistical Office. 18 percent of abortions were performed on an outpatient basis in the hospital. Seven percent of the pregnant women, according to Destatis data for the intervention, sought a federal state in which they did not live. Further data on abortions are available from the Federal Statistical Office with the current abortion statistics (here) in the GENESIS-Online database. (Fp)

Also read:
No coffee in artificial insemination
Context between cat feces and women suicide
Required for blood test for Down syndrome ban

Image: Dieter Schütz