Catholic World News News Feature
UN Reports 45 Million Abortions Per Year Worldwide February 15, 1996
NEW YORK (CWN) - The UN released a report on Wednesday that estimates that 45 million abortions are performed throughout the world every year. That figure means there is one abortion for every three live births.
Also, according to the report of the UN Population Fund, more than 20 million abortions are performed under conditions that are unsafe for the mother. Most of these are done in countries were abortion is illegal. The UN used the opportunity of the report's release to call for the legalization of abortion worldwide to avoid "medically substandard and unsafe conditions, leading to a high incidence of complications and...resulting in chronic morbidity and often death."
"Lack of legal restrictions on abortion, however, does not necessarily guarantee access to safe abortion, as evidenced by the relatively high incidence of unsafe abortion in the former USSR," where it is legal, the report noted.
The report did not address the relationship between the high incidence of abortion and the relative population growth of the whole world.
