OTTAWA, October 31, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The statistics for the number of abortions committed in Canada in 2009, the latest figures available, were released on October 28 by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
This year the CIHI has added a number of new tables to the report, including on method of abortion and complications after abortion, and has updated the reports for 2007 and 2008.
According to the report, 93,755 children were aborted in 2009, down slightly from the revised 2008 figure of 95,876. The report notes, however, that data for abortions in British Columbia clinics is again incomplete.
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As LifeSiteNews has reported before, the data made available by the government agency does not reflect the true number of abortions committed because reporting data is voluntary for abortion clinics, and therefore the data is incomplete.
“Hospitals are mandated by their provincial/territorial ministry of health to report all hospital activity (not limited to abortions); therefore, coverage of abortions performed in Canadian hospitals can be considered complete. However, there is no such legislative requirement for clinics to report their activity (reporting is voluntary). For 2009 (and previous years), clinic data for British Columbia is incomplete,” the CIHI states in its report.
The true number of abortions may also be skewed because data from Ontario and Quebec includes only induced abortions covered by their respective provincial health insurance plans. Data from all other provinces/territories (including Ontario hospital data) includes all induced abortions, whether paid for by the patient or by a different health insurance plan.
The new tables showing complications after abortion indicate that the percentage of women injured by aborting their children has stayed relatively constant, with between 2.3% and 2.6% of abortions resulting in complications such as hemorrhage, infection, retained “products of conception”, “other” and combinations of some or all of the above.
However, the complications tables show only stats from hospitals, not from clinics, and no complication stats are given for Quebec, which has the second highest abortion rate, following Ontario, in Canada.
The most common method of abortion, at about 86%, in Canada is, “Aspiration and Curettage” which involves removing the child from the womb using a suction curet.
As in previous years, abortion appears to have been most common for women aged 20-24, who procured 22% of reported abortions. This figure does not include Quebec, however, because the province did not provide an age breakdown.
The statistics are available at the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s website here.