abortion.
Have we gone too far?
Teen abortions
Teenagers accounted for 17% of abortions in 2004, the latest year on record. Girls under 18 accounted for just 6.3% of all abortions. The rate of teenage abortions dropped to 13.8 per 1000 young women, down from 14.4 in 2003. The rate of induced abortions among the teenage population has gradually declined since 1996, when the rate peaked at 18.9.
In comparison, women in their 20s accounted for 53% of all abortions in 2004. The rate of induced abortions per 1,000 women in this age group was 25 in 2004.
Teens aged 14 or younger
Abortions were performed on 304 girls age 14 or younger in 2004. Since 1988, abortions have been performed on 8,092 girls 14 or younger. The total number of early-teen abortions on record in Canada since 1974 is 16,403.
The number of girls under 15 obtaining abortions dropped by nearly half over the decade from 1994 to 2004—from 560 in 1994 down to 304 in 2004.
Over the decade from 1994 to 2004, the number of pregnancies in girls under 15 also declined, down by more than half from 864 in 1994 to 424 in 2004. The number of live births in this age group has also dropped in the past decade, down to 111 in 2004 from 252 in 1994.
Teenage girls between 15-17
Teenage girls between the ages of 15 to 17 account for just 6% of all abortions obtained in 2004. The number of under-age teenagers obtaining abortions has dropped steadily since 1994, where it peaked at 8,655. The pregnancy rate in this age group has dropped by nearly half since 1994, from 30.6 per 1,000 girls to 16.9 per 1,000 in 2004.
Young women ages 18-19
Young women ages 18-19 obtained 10,964 abortions in 2004, almost 11% of the total for that year. Abortion among this group has declined since 1996 from a high of 34 per 1,000 women to the current rate of 25.9. The number of pregnancies among this age group has dropped steadily since 1994, from 29,383 to 21,252.
A total of 589,489 teenage abortions have occurred in Canada since 1974. Between 1988 and 2004, there were 336,026 teen abortions, an average of 21,000 per year.