In 2022, there were around 613 thousand legal abortions in the United States. The number of legal abortions in the United States has decreased significantly since the early 1990’s. This number will probably continue to decrease in the coming years since many states have severely limited or completely banned abortion after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022. The states with the highest abortion rates In 2022, the rate of legal abortions per live births in the United States was 19.9 per 100. In comparison, in 1990 there were 34.4 abortions per 100 live births. The states with the highest rates of abortion per live births are New Mexico, Illinois, and Florida. In Florida, there were around 37 abortions per 100 live births in 2022. Florida had the highest total number of abortions that year, followed by New York and Illinois. Missouri and South Dakota had the lowest number of abortions in 2022. Out-of-state abortions Critics of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade argue that while those who can afford it may be able to travel to other states for an abortion if their state bans the procedure, poorer residents will have no such choice. Even before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, out-of-state residents already accounted for a high share of abortions in certain states. In 2022, 69 percent of abortions in Kansas were performed on out-of-state residents, while out-of-state residents accounted for around 62 percent of abortions in New Mexico. Illinois had the highest total number of abortions performed on out-of-state residents that year, with around 16,849 procedures.

In 2022, the states with the highest rates of abortion per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years in the United States were New Mexico, Illinois, and Kansas. The states with the lowest rates of abortion were Missouri and South Dakota. Abortion differences among the states In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade allowing states to restrict the practice of abortion or outright ban it completely. A number of states immediately banned the procedure through trigger laws they had in place in anticipation of the ruling. Even before the ruling, abortion accessibility and rates varied greatly from state to state, but this difference has become even more pronounced. For example, in 2022, Florida had an abortion rate of 20.5 per 1,000 women, while the rate in Missouri was just .1. Florida had the highest total number of abortions that year, followed by New York and Illinois. While Florida reported around 82,581 abortions in 2022, there were just 88 such procedures in Missouri. Public opinion on abortion In the United States, the debate surrounding abortion is often divided among those who are “pro-life” and think abortion should be restricted or banned and those who are “pro-choice” and believe the decision to abort a pregnancy should be up to the woman. Gallup polls show the distribution of people in the United States who are pro-life or pro-choice has fluctuated over the years but in 2023 around 52 percent of respondents stated they were pro-choice while 44 percent said they were pro-life. Older respondents are more likely to express views limiting access to abortion, while younger people are more likely to believe abortion should be legal under any circumstance. However, just a small minority of people of all ages believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

In 2022, there were around *** abortions carried out per 1,000 live births in Georgia, which was the highest rate of abortions in Europe in that year. Sweden and Bulgaria had *** and *** abortions per 1,000 live births, respectively. In Poland, where until very recently abortion was banned apart for some exceptional circumstances, only *** abortions per 1,000 births were conducted in 2022. Births in Europe Bulgaria had the youngest mean age of woman at childbirth in the EU in 2022 at 27.8 years. Romania and Moldova both had mean age for childbirths at just over 28 years of age. On the other hand, the average age at childbirth in Ireland, Spain, and Luxembourg was over 32 years of age. In every EU country, the fertility rate for a woman is under *** children, with some of the lowest rates found in Italy and Spain at ***. Contraception use In 2022, Norway had the highest share of women aged 15 to 49 years using any sort of contraception in Europe, with ** percent using. Czechia and Finland both had high levels of contraception use among women at **** and ** percent respectively. Just over a quarter of women use any form of contraception in Montenegro, the lowest share in Europe.

More than ******* abortions were performed in Russia in 2023. Starting from over *** millio* abortions recorded in the country in 2000, the number of terminated pregnancies has continuously decreased over time. The figures include induced abortions as well as miscarriages. The abortion rate in Russia stood at *** procedures per 1,000 live births in 2022. How is abortion regulated in Russia? Abortions are legal in Russia up to the 12th week of pregnancy and up to the 22nd week in cases of rape. They are conducted in state as well as private medical facilities. In 2022, approximately ********* of all pregnancy terminations in the country were conducted in commercial clinics. However, over the past decade, the laws regarding abortion have been tightened, allowing for fewer reasons for pregnancy termination. Moreover, there are proposals to ban abortions in private clinics. In a ranking of European policies by progressiveness and openness to abortion, Russia listed below most Western European countries. Contraception use in Russia Russia was one of the lowest-ranking countries in Europe by access to modern contraception. Approximately ** percent of Russian women aged 15 to 49 years used hormonal contraceptives, while ***** percent used an intrauterine device (IUD). In 2023, the country’s health ministry increased control over the sale and storage of mifepristone and misoprostol, medicines for pregnancy termination.

A survey of women who obtained an abortion in the United States between June 2021 and July 2022 found that ** percent were Hispanic, while ** percent were white. This statistic shows the distribution of women in the U.S. who obtained an abortion from June 2021 to July 2022, by race/ethnicity.

The rate of legal abortions in the United States has decreased over the last few decades. In 2022, there were around 19.9 legal abortions per 100 live births, whereas the rate was 34 abortions per 100 live births in the year 1990. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022, states within the U.S. have the right to severely limit or completely ban abortion if they wish, meaning that access to such procedures varies significantly depending on the state or region. Abortion in the U.S. In 2022, there were over 613,000 legal abortions in the United States. Abortion rates in the U.S. are highest among women aged 25 to 29 years and more common among unmarried women than those who are married. In 2022, there were approximately 38 legal abortions per 100 live births among unmarried women compared to four abortions per 100 live births among women who were married.
Public opinion The issue of abortion has been and remains a divisive topic among the general public and continues to be a relevant political issue. As of May 2023, around 44 percent of the population was estimated to be pro-life, while 52 percent were pro-choice and three percent mixed or neither. However, this distribution has fluctuated over the years, with pro-lifers accounting for a larger percentage than pro-choicers as recently as 2019.

As of March 2023, a total of 260,836 patients performed legal abortions in Mexico City, of which 179,224 were women who resided in the capital. Meanwhile, over 71,000 patients came from the neighboring state of Mexico. Mexico City was the first state in the country where women could have abortions legally within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

An outlier in an ocean of dissonance

Varying from state to state, each region in Mexico is unique regarding abortion laws and enforcement. Apart from rape, which is unanimously recognized across all states, factors such as maternal fatality, health, and child defects are the only exceptions for abortions in most local municipalities' penal codes. In many conservative parts of the country, such as Nuevo León, 100 criminal investigations were prosecuted due to abortion in 2020. Given abortion policies' political polarization, public opinion often falls along the lines of 'pro-choice' versus 'pro-life' disputes. According to a 2019 poll, citizens in Zacatecas, Chiapas, and Tamaulipas overwhelmingly disfavored women's right to abortion by over 70 percent, while citizens in Mexico City and Baja California favored women's right to abortion by approximately 53 percent.

A population at strife with abortion rights

In 2008, the Mexican supreme court decriminalized abortion in Mexico City, which set-off a historical precedent for women's rights across the region. Overall, Mexico along with Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba are the only five countries in the region to have passed pro-abortion legislation. Yet, the subject across the region continues to be a divisive opinion. According to a 2021 survey, Argentina remains the most progressive population, with 44 percent believing abortion should be allowed according to the woman's determination. However, across the region, around 35 percent of Latin Americans believe that abortion should only be allowed under certain circumstances, such as rape. Alternatively, birth control measures have become increasingly popular in the region. As of 2019, people in Latin America and the Caribbean were the second largest population using contraception in the world.

Abortion remains a controversial topic in the United States and has been an exceptionally political topic since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This ruling has allowed individual states to completely ban the procedure if they choose, which a number of states have since done. In 2022, the year of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the highest rates of legal abortion in the United States were among women aged 25 to 29 years, with around **** abortions per 1,000 women. How many abortions are there in the United States each year? In 2022, there were an estimated ******* legal abortions in the United States. This was a decrease from the year before, and in general, the number of legal abortions per year in the U.S. has decreased since the late 1990s. The rate of abortion has also decreased significantly. In 1997, the rate of legal abortions per 100 live births was ****, but this had dropped to **** per 100 live births by the year 2022. At that time, the states with the highest rates of abortion were New Mexico, Illinois, and Kansas. Public opinion on abortion As of 20234, around ** percent of U.S. adults considered themselves pro-choice, while ** percent were pro-life. However, these numbers have fluctuated over the years, with a larger share of people identifying as pro-life just five years earlier. Nevertheless, a poll from 2024 indicated that only a small minority of U.S. adults want abortion to be illegal in all cases, with younger people more likely to support the legalization of abortion in any circumstance. Furthermore, surveys have shown that since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, U.S. adults have expressed being much more dissatisfied with abortion policy in the country, desiring less strict policy.

BackgroundA maternal mortality ratio is a sensitive indicator when comparing the overall maternal health between countries and its very high figure indicates the failure of maternal healthcare efforts. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam-CLMV countries are the low-income countries of the South-East Asia region where their maternal mortality ratios are disproportionately high. This systematic review aimed to summarize all possible factors influencing maternal mortality in CLMV countries.MethodsThis systematic review applied "The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Checklist (2020)", Three key phrases: "Maternal Mortality and Health Outcome", "Maternal Healthcare Interventions" and "CLMV Countries" were used for the literature search. 75 full-text papers were systematically selected from three databases (PubMed, Google Scholar and Hinari). Two stages of data analysis were descriptive analysis of the general information of the included papers and qualitative analysis of key findings.ResultsPoor family income, illiteracy, low education levels, living in poor households, and agricultural and unskilled manual job types of mothers contributed to insufficient antenatal care. Maternal factors like non-marital status and sex-associated work were highly associated with induced abortions while being rural women, ethnic minorities, poor maternal knowledge and attitudes, certain social and cultural beliefs and husbands’ influences directly contributed to the limitations of maternal healthcare services. Maternal factors that made more contributions to poor maternal healthcare outcomes included lower quintiles of wealth index, maternal smoking and drinking behaviours, early and elderly age at marriage, over 35 years pregnancies, unfavourable birth history, gender-based violence experiences, multigravida and higher parity. Higher unmet needs and lower demands for maternal healthcare services occurred among women living far from healthcare facilities. Regarding the maternal healthcare workforce, the quality and number of healthcare providers, the development of healthcare infrastructures and human resource management policy appeared to be arguable. Concerning maternal healthcare service use, the provisions of mobile and outreach maternal healthcare services were inconvenient and limited.ConclusionLow utilization rates were due to several supply-side constraints. The results will advance knowledge about maternal healthcare and mortality and provide a valuable summary to policymakers for developing policies and strategies promoting high-quality maternal healthcare.

BackgroundA maternal mortality ratio is a sensitive indicator when comparing the overall maternal health between countries and its very high figure indicates the failure of maternal healthcare efforts. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam-CLMV countries are the low-income countries of the South-East Asia region where their maternal mortality ratios are disproportionately high. This systematic review aimed to summarize all possible factors influencing maternal mortality in CLMV countries.MethodsThis systematic review applied "The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Checklist (2020)", Three key phrases: "Maternal Mortality and Health Outcome", "Maternal Healthcare Interventions" and "CLMV Countries" were used for the literature search. 75 full-text papers were systematically selected from three databases (PubMed, Google Scholar and Hinari). Two stages of data analysis were descriptive analysis of the general information of the included papers and qualitative analysis of key findings.ResultsPoor family income, illiteracy, low education levels, living in poor households, and agricultural and unskilled manual job types of mothers contributed to insufficient antenatal care. Maternal factors like non-marital status and sex-associated work were highly associated with induced abortions while being rural women, ethnic minorities, poor maternal knowledge and attitudes, certain social and cultural beliefs and husbands’ influences directly contributed to the limitations of maternal healthcare services. Maternal factors that made more contributions to poor maternal healthcare outcomes included lower quintiles of wealth index, maternal smoking and drinking behaviours, early and elderly age at marriage, over 35 years pregnancies, unfavourable birth history, gender-based violence experiences, multigravida and higher parity. Higher unmet needs and lower demands for maternal healthcare services occurred among women living far from healthcare facilities. Regarding the maternal healthcare workforce, the quality and number of healthcare providers, the development of healthcare infrastructures and human resource management policy appeared to be arguable. Concerning maternal healthcare service use, the provisions of mobile and outreach maternal healthcare services were inconvenient and limited.ConclusionLow utilization rates were due to several supply-side constraints. The results will advance knowledge about maternal healthcare and mortality and provide a valuable summary to policymakers for developing policies and strategies promoting high-quality maternal healthcare.

In 2020, in European countries where abortions are legal, a specific time frame varied from 10 to 24 weeks. The most permissive legislation was in application in the U.K, where a women could have an abortion up until ** weeks of pregnancy, followed by the Netherlands with ** weeks. On the other hand, women in Portugal can have an abortion up until ** weeks, although this time frame can be overpassed in very specific situations such as risk to woman's health, rape and fetal malformation.

A survey of women who obtained an abortion in the United States between June 2021 and July 2022 found that 45 percent of women who received an abortion were insured under Medicaid, while 21 percent had no health insurance at all. This statistic shows the distribution of women in the U.S. who obtained an abortion from June 2021 to July 2022, by health insurance status.

As of 2024, a total of 277,268 patients performed legal abortions in Mexico City, of which 189,525 were women who resided in the capital. Meanwhile, over 77,160 patients came from the neighboring state of Mexico. Mexico City was the first state in the country where women could have abortions legally within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. An outlier in an ocean of dissonanceVarying from state to state, each region in Mexico is unique regarding abortion laws and enforcement. Apart from rape, which is unanimously recognized across all states, factors such as maternal fatality, health, and child defects are the only exceptions for abortions in most local municipalities' penal codes. In many conservative parts of the country, such as Nuevo León, 141 criminal investigations were prosecuted due to abortion in 2023. Given abortion policies' political polarization, public opinion often falls along the lines of 'pro-choice' versus 'pro-life' disputes. According to a 2019 poll, citizens in Zacatecas, Chiapas, and Tamaulipas overwhelmingly disfavored women's right to abortion by over 70 percent, while citizens in Mexico City and Baja California favored women's right to abortion by approximately 53 percent. A population at strife with abortion rightsIn 2008, the Mexican supreme court decriminalized abortion in Mexico City, which set-off a historical precedent for women's rights across the region. Overall, Mexico along with Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba are the only five countries in the region to have passed pro-abortion legislation. Yet, the subject across the region continues to be a divisive opinion. According to a 2023 survey, Argentina remains the most progressive population, with 54 percent believing abortion should be allowed according to the woman's determination. However, across the region, around 35 percent of Latin Americans believe that abortion should only be allowed under certain circumstances, such as rape. Alternatively, birth control measures have become increasingly popular in the region. As of 2019, people in Latin America and the Caribbean were the second largest population using contraception in the world.

This statistic shows the 20 countries* with the highest infant mortality rate in 2024. An estimated 101.3 infants per 1,000 live births died in the first year of life in Afghanistan in 2024. Infant and child mortality Infant mortality usually refers to the death of children younger than one year. Child mortality, which is often used synonymously with infant mortality, is the death of children younger than five. Among the main causes are pneumonia, diarrhea – which causes dehydration – and infections in newborns, with malnutrition also posing a severe problem. As can be seen above, most countries with a high infant mortality rate are developing countries or emerging countries, most of which are located in Africa. Good health care and hygiene are crucial in reducing child mortality; among the countries with the lowest infant mortality rate are exclusively developed countries, whose inhabitants usually have access to clean water and comprehensive health care. Access to vaccinations, antibiotics and a balanced nutrition also help reducing child mortality in these regions. In some countries, infants are killed if they turn out to be of a certain gender. India, for example, is known as a country where a lot of girls are aborted or killed right after birth, as they are considered to be too expensive for poorer families, who traditionally have to pay a costly dowry on the girl’s wedding day. Interestingly, the global mortality rate among boys is higher than that for girls, which could be due to the fact that more male infants are actually born than female ones. Other theories include a stronger immune system in girls, or more premature births among boys.

In 2024, around 54 percent of adults in the United States stated they considerd themselves pro-choice, meaning they would leave the decision to abort a pregnancy up to the pregnant woman. Pro-life supporters, which made up 41 percent at that time, oppose abortion altogether. Abortion in the United States Abortion and the question whether one is pro-life (and thus against abortion) or pro-choice (i.e. in favor of abortion) is a controversial topic in the United States and the subject of many heated discussions. Before the notorious “Roe vs. Wade” decision of the Supreme Court in 1973, abortion was illegal in most U.S. states and only legal under certain circumstances in others. In short, the case “Roe vs. Wade” was a milestone in granting women freedom over their own body, making abortion legal, as it ruled that a woman’s right to privacy included her unborn child, and set regulations for the availability of abortions. However, in June of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making it possible for states to choose to completely ban abortion. As a result, around half of U.S. states were expected to ban the procedure. Pro-life and Pro-choice Ever since this decision, there have been two main mindsets (with many variations) when it comes to abortion. One is the pro-life attitude, which deems abortion murder and considers life starting at conception. The other is the pro-choice movement, which focuses on the well-being of the mother and insists that the woman alone should decide whether she wants to keep a baby or not. Politically, pro-lifers are usually seen as conservative, often belonging to the Republican camp, while pro-choicers are usually regarded as liberals who lean towards the Democrats. Of course, exceptions are not uncommon.

In England and Wales in 2022, the conception rate among women aged between 30 and 34 years was approximately 115.7 per 1,000 women, meaning this age group had the highest rate of conceptions that year. Slightly lower was the rate of conceptions among 25 to 29-year-olds at 113.7 conceptions per 1,000 women, while there were 80.4 conceptions per 1,000 women aged between 20 and 24 years of age. Trends in teenage conceptions The rate of teenage pregnancies has declined sharply in the last ten years. In 2008, the conception rate among teenagers was approximately 60 per 1,000; by 2021, this rate has dropped to 26.1 as displayed above. While the number of teenage pregnancies has dropped in England and Wales, the share of pregnant teenagers getting abortions has increased. The share of teenage conceptions ending in abortion increased from 40.1 percent in 2004 to 51.6 percent in 2021. Additionally, teenagers are the most likely age group in England and Wales to go through with an abortion after a pregnancy. Birth rate trends in the UK In 2021, the birth rate in the UK was 10.4 births per 1,000 population, which, except for 2020, was the lowest birth rate in the country since the start of the provided time period in 1938. The average age at which a mother gives birth in the UK has also increased alongside the drop in birth rate. In 2000, the average age of a mother giving birth in the UK was 28.5; by 2021, it was 30.9 years old. Furthermore, there were just 41 live births per woman aged 22 in 2022, compared with 71 live births for 22-year-olds in 2002 and 86 live births for women aged 22 in 1992.