Medical and Surgical Induced Abortion

No method of contraception is 100% effective; over half the women seeking an abortion are using contraception (Jones et al., 2002). It has been estimated that 42 million abortions are carried out every year, and half of these are illegal and unsafe (Sedgh et al., 2007). A proportion of women of all backgrounds with an unintended pregnancy are going to seek an abortion, legal or illegal, irrespective of the risks involved (Rosenfield, 1994) . Unplanned pregnancies are a problem that faces all societies; the Guttmacher Institute in New York determined that 49% of all pregnancies occurring in the USA in 1994 were unintended, 54% of these ending in abortion, and 48% of women aged 15-44 had had at least one unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives (Henshaw, 1998). The United Nations estimated that in 2008 of the 208 million pregnancies worldwide 41% were unintended (Singh et al., 2010). The Guttmacher Institute estimates that 30% of American women will have an abortion by the age of 45 (Jones & Kavanagh, 2011).