This week, the New York based Guttmacher Institute released a report entitled "Abortion worldwide-a decade of uneven progress". So, what has changed since the previous report in 1999, and is the change for the better? Encouragingly, the worldwide abortion rate has fallen. The observed 17% decline (from 35 to 29 per 1000 women of childbearing age; currently 41-6 million abortions annually) results largely from a reduction in safe abortions in eastern Europe, where abortion is legal. However, the abortion rate decreased less in areas where the procedure is still illegal and therefore remains unsafe. The developing world is now ahead of the developed world in the number of abortions done annually (29 vs 26 per 1000 women of childbearing age).
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