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Marital status and abortion
1Health Statistics Division at Statistics Canada, Ottawa.
Objectives:
This article examines the marital status of women who obtained abortions between 1974 and 1994, with particular attention to those who were married or in common-law relationships.
Data Sources:
The data come from Statistics Canada's publications on abortions, in-patient hospital morbidity data, and reports from the United States.
Analytical Techniques:
Crude and age-standardized abortion rates from 1974 to 1994 were calculated by marital status.
Main Results:
While abortion rates were highest for single women, those who were married (including common-law and separated) accounted for over one-quarter of all abortions performed in 1994. Since 1974, the age-standardized abortion rate per 1,000 married women aged 15 to 44 almost doubled from 6.6 to 11.2. For most of these women, it was their first abortion, and the majority had taken at least one pregnancy to term.