June 17, 2015 4:00pm by David Farrar

Abortion rate drops again

The number of abortions performed in New Zealand decreased in 2014, Statistics New Zealand said today. A total of 13,137 induced abortions were performed, which was 936 fewer than in 2013.

The general abortion rate (abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years) decreased from 15.6 per 1,000 women in 2013 to 14.4 in 2014. This rate is the lowest it has been in over 20 years (in 1993 it was 14.3 per 1,000). The lower abortion rate indicates that the decrease in the number of abortions was due to fewer women having abortions, rather than to changes in the size or age structure of the population.

I’ve graphed the data below:

As you can see the number and rate grew steadily until 2003. It was then fairly constant until 2007, and has been steadily dropping since.

This is a good thing.

It would be interesting to know what changed so that the number of abortions started to drop from 2007. Better education? Better contraception? Less unprotected sex? Fewer women choosing an abortion? A combination of the above?