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PubMed1999

The male partner involved in legal abortion.

This study comprises 75 men who have been involved in legal abortion. The men answered a questionnaire concerning living conditions and attitudes about pregnancy and abortion. Most men were found to be in stable relationships with good finances. More than half clearly stated that they wanted the woman to have an abortion while 20 stressed that they submitted themselves to their partner's decision. Only one man wanted the woman to complete the pregnancy. Apart from wanting children within functioning family units, the motivation for abortion revealed that the desire to have children depended on the ability to provide qualitatively good parenting. More than half the men had discussed with their partner what to do in event of pregnancy and half had decided to have an abortion if a pregnancy occurred. More than half expressed ambivalent feelings about the coming abortion, using words such as anxiety, responsibility, guilt, relief and grief. In spite of these contradictory feelings, prevailing expectations concerning lifestyle make abortion an acceptable form of birth control. A deeper understanding of the complexity of legal abortion makes it necessary to accept the role of paradox, which the ambivalence reflects. Obviously, men must constitute a target group in efforts to prevent abortions.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1998

Legal abortion in Denmark during the past 25 years: aspects of public health and ethics.

Since October 1, 1973, Denmark has granted its permanent residents the right to legal abortion up to the end of the 12th week of gestation. In the beginning of the period of legal abortion, the numbers of induced abortions per year were high, although they decreased during the 1980s and 1990s. Probably, information campaigns concerning the use of contraception have had some effect. Abortion figures are, however, of interest of studied as rates of abortion, i.e. numbers per 1000 women of fertile age or as age-related rates of abortion. Aspects of legal abortion comprise various topics. One of these is the ethical questions for physicians and nurses, and also for the entire population in a country with legal, and free, abortion to a certain limit. Some central ethical questions are discussed, and it is stated that we cannot perform abortion if we grant the fetus the same moral status as an adult human being.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Legal abortion in Italy: 1980-1981.

In 1980 and 1981, there were 446,430 legal abortions performed in Italy. There were about 345 legal abortions per 1,000 live births in 1980 and 363 in 1981. About 1.6 percent of women aged 15-49 obtained abortions in both years. An analysis of the characteristics of Italian women who obtained abortions indicates that most were married (about 70 percent), aged 18-36 (74 percent), had had less than a high school education (74 percent) and had had at least one previous live birth (70-75 percent). In 1981, 88 percent of abortions were obtained in public hospitals; 58 percent were carried out at eight or fewer weeks of gestation; and 78 percent were performed under general anesthesia. Only 20 percent were performed without an overnight stay in the hospital; and over 40 percent of women were hospitalized for two days or longer. Infection after the abortion was reported in only 0.03 percent of cases in 1981, and hemorrhage was reported in only 0.27 percent. In 1981, between 43 percent and 84 percent of gynecologists (depending on the region of the country) declined to perform abortions on grounds of conscience.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1988

Fertility and legal abortion in England and Wales: performance indicators for family planning services.

The relation between fertility rates and legal abortion rates was investigated in a sample of health authorities in England and Wales to see how these varied. Total period fertility rates and total period legal abortion rates were derived from the average number of live births or legal abortions that would be experienced per woman if women experienced the age specific rates of the year in question throughout their childbearing years. The sample of 30 health authorities was selected by taking the districts with the highest and lowest fertility rates in each English region and in Wales in 1986. Total period fertility rates varied from 1.37 in Riverside to 2.42 in Tower Hamlets, while abortion rates varied from 0.25 in East Yorkshire to 0.99 in Riverside. When the two rates were added to provide a potential fertility rate it became clear that some districts with similar potential fertility rates had very different underlying component rates. Such comparisons can be used for service monitoring, indicating the need for better abortion and family planning services in districts with high fertility rates and for better family planning services in those with high abortion rates.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1987

Legal abortion mortality in the United States: 1972 to 1982.

Between 1972 and 1982, 186 women died as a result of legal abortion in the United States. The overall death rate resulting from legal abortion dropped nearly fivefold, from 4.1 per 100,000 abortions in 1972 to 0.8 in 1982. Women who were older, black, of high parity, and had abortions at a later gestational age were at increased risk of death throughout the 11 years of surveillance. During this period, the death rate decreased for abortions at all stages of gestation; the greatest decrease was with abortions performed during the second trimester. For the entire interval, mortality rates were highest for abortions performed by hysterotomy or hysterectomy and lowest for abortions performed by curettage. Before 1977, the most common causes of abortion-related death were infection, hemorrhage, and general anesthesia complications, respectively. Thereafter, hemorrhage became the most common cause of abortion-related death, followed in number by general anesthesia complications. Our findings suggest that there has been a marked decrease in septic legal abortion deaths, but potentially preventable deaths from general anesthesia and hemorrhage remain an important concern. Use of general anesthetics during first-trimester abortions should be carefully reviewed.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1977

The risk of dying from legal abortion in the United States, 1972-1975.

Data gathered by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) through epidemiologic surveillance of deaths associated with legal abortions performed from 1972 through 1975 are analyzed by the type of procedure and the gestational age of the patients. Analysis shows that deaths increase at higher gestational ages and that the risk of death from abortion is highest with hysterotomy and hysterectomy and lowest with suction curettage. Second trimester instillation procedures are associated with higher rates of mortality than first trimester curettage procedures, even when dilatation and evacuation at 13-15 weeks' gestation is included as a curettage procedure. A case history of a patient who died as a result of legal abortion demonstrates that while legal abortion is a safe surgical procedure, some of the deaths that still occur can be prevented.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Legalized abortion: the Singapore experience.

Abortion has been legal since 1970 in Singapore. This report traces the events leading to the liberalization of abortion laws and examines women's changing attitudes toward abortion, in Singapore. The method of abortion practiced by obstetricians, postabortal sterilization, and the effect of legalized abortion on the incidence of illegal abortion in the country are also examined.

Abortion, Illegal↗
PubMed2004

[Health professionals and legal abortion in Brazil: challenges, conflicts, and meanings].

This article discusses the roles of social workers, psychologists, nurses, and physicians concerning abortion and their participation in assisting legal abortion in Brazil for women victims of sexual violence. The working hypothesis was that many health professionals might oppose such programs on the grounds that they involve interruption of pregnancy. This qualitative study interviewed 12 health professionals and two program managers in the State of Paraíba and the Federal District (Brasilia). The health professionals' representations of abortion ranged from a moralist and religious concept to the promotion of women's rights and autonomy. The health professionals faced obvious challenges in dealing with the abortion issue. Their experience in treating women had fostered changes in values and a reinterpretation of the meaning of their own practice.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1980

Aging and conservatism: cohort changes in attitudes about legalized abortion.

Cohort changes in attitudes about the availability of legal abortions are traced over a twelve year period using data from seven national surveys. Contrary to the aging-conservatism hypothesis, trends in the direction of increasingly favorable attitudes between 1965 and 1973 and general stability thereafter characterize all cohorts. On this issue, there is no evidence of growing conservatism, attitudinal rigidity, or change at a slower rate among the older cohorts.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1983

Fatal hemorrhage from legal abortion in the United States.

Deaths from hemorrhage associated with legal induced abortion should not occur. Yet hemorrhage was the third most frequent cause of death from legal abortion in the United States between 1972 and 1979. This study was undertaken to document the scope of the problem, to identify risk factors for fatal hemorrhage and to recommend ways of preventing these deaths. Deaths were identified through the CDC's nationwide surveillance of deaths from abortions; information on numbers and characteristics of women having legal abortions was obtained from CDC and the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Twenty-four women died from hemorrhage after legal abortion in the United States from 1972 to 1979, for a death-to-case rate of 0.3 deaths per 100,000 abortions (95 per cent confidence interval 0.2 to 0.5). Women who died from hemorrhage were significantly older than those who died from other causes (27.6 versus 24.4 years; p less than 0.05). Documented uterine perforation or rupture was far more frequent among women who died from hemorrhage than those who died from other causes (71 versus 8 per cent; p less than 0.001). Women who sustained uterine perforation or rupture were over 1,000 times more likely to die from hemorrhage than those who did not. Deaths from hemorrhage can be eliminated by preventing uterine trauma during abortion and by rapidly diagnosing and treating hemorrhage if it occurs.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1977

Legal abortion mortality in the United States. Epidemiologic surveillance, 1972-1974.

As determined by the Center for Disease Control's epidemiologic surveillance of abortion mortality, the death-to-case rate for legal abortion in the United States for the three years 1972 to 1974 was 3.9/100,000 procedures. This mortality compares favorably with that from other commonly performed surgical procedures. Women who were older, were of nonwhite races, had the procedure in their state of residence, were at later gestational age, and who underwent intrauterine instillation or major abdominal surgery had the highest mortality. Duration of pregnancy proved to be the most important determinant of risk. Compared to mortality from pregnancy and childbirth, legal abortion in the first trimester was almost nine times safer.

Abortion, Legal↗
PubMed1991

Response bias in a case-control study: analysis utilizing comparative data concerning legal abortions from two independent Swedish studies.

Independent reports of legal abortions in two Swedish epidemiologic studies of breast cancer in young women, covering the same women and overlapping the same time period, have been compared in order to estimate a putative response bias. One study used case-control methods and obtained data by retrospective interviews from 317 cases and 512 controls. The other study was based on objectively documented information froma nationwide registry covering legally induced abortions. Analysis demonstrated a ratio between the odds ratios from the two studies of 1.5 (95 percent confidence interval 1.1-2.1) and an observed ratio of 22.4 (p less than 0.007) between underreporting of previous induced abortions among controls relative to overreporting among cases. This response bias may explain the tendency toward increased risk of breast cancer which, according to several case-control studies, appears to be associated with induced abortion.

Abortion, Legal↗