Women had fewer abortions in 2005; teenagers record biggest decline

Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that Canada's abortion rate declined by 3.2 per cent overall in 2005, with abortions among teens dropping by almost six per cent.

The drop in teen abortions follows a quarter-century decline in teen pregnancy rates, which experts link to the efficacy of safe-sex campaigns.

But while easier access to contraceptives and widespread campaigns about the need to prevent sexually transmitted diseases likely played a role, the decline in teen pregnancies also reflects a "fundamental change" in the lives of women, said Alex McKay, of the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.

"Over the last quarter-century, many more young women have had access to higher education, better employment opportunities. For many years, they had increasing access to better and more comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care," he said.

"Those things tend to correlate strongly with declining pregnancy rates."

And it's not just teens.

"Women are exercising greater control over their fertility, progressively so and that, with respect to the general health and well-being of women, is a positive signal," McKay said.

Statistics Canada reported 96,815 abortions were performed on Canadian women in 2005, down 3.2 per cent from 100,039 in 2004.

As a result, the abortion rate slipped to 14.1 for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2005 from 14.6 in 2004.

While that seems like a small drop, Dr. Andre Lalonde of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, said it's a significant change.

"The decrease appears to be modest, but it's more than modest because since 2000 the population has increased," he said.

Abortions were most common among women in their early 20s, who accounted for 31 per cent of all abortions in 2005. On average, 28 women out of every 1,000 aged 20 to 24 obtained an induced abortion.

But the agency reported abortion rates fell in every age group except among women aged 35 to 39, where it remained unchanged.

Lalonde said his group's studies suggest that while younger women tend to use contraception, older women may drop it if they aren't in a relationship.

"Then, they may decide to have sex very suddenly and that makes it difficult."

The steepest decline in rates occurred among teenagers, to 13 for every 1,000 in 2005 from 13.8 in 2004. The rate of teen abortion peaked at 18.9 in 1996 and has been on the decline ever since.

McKay said far fewer Canadian teens get pregnant than teenagers in either the United States or Britain.

"The teen pregnancy rates in Canada have been, and continue to be, consistently and significantly lower than both the U.K. and the United States," he said. "Typically speaking, the teen pregnancy rate in Canada is roughly half of what it is in the United States."

One reason for that may be that poor, inner city teens in the U.S. don't have the access to health care and education that their Canadian counterparts do.

Statistics Canada said there were 18.6 live births for every 1,000 women under 20 in 1996. By 2005, this had dropped to 11.1. Meanwhile, the number of abortions for every 100 live births fell to 28.3 in 2005 from 29.7 in 2004.

Lalonde said the number of abortions is still too high.

"We still think that 96,000 abortions is a lot of abortions," he said. "We'd like to see a figure go way below 50,000 because that means . . . men and women in this country would protect themselves and decrease or eliminate unwanted pregnancies."