Australian Abortion Statistics

Facts and figures relating to the frequency of abortion in Australia.

It is currently impossible to acquire accurate quantifications for the number of abortions in Australia, as there are no national data sets or uniform collection methods (click here for a Research Brief submitted to the Australian Parliament explaining abortion data collection deficiencies). The following is 2003 data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW):

ANNUAL ABORTION STATISTICS

• The estimated number of induced abortions for 2003 is 84,218.
• The highest number of induced abortions in 2003 was in the 20–24 year age group (21,826, 25.9%) and the lowest was in the <15 year age group (306, 0.4%).
• According to the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD), 94.3% abortions occurred between the 5th and 13th week of pregnancy and 0.7% occurred after the 20th week. 
• Also, according to NHMD, 85.7% of abortion procedures were suction curettage, 12.8% were dilation and curettage (D&C), and 1.5% were medical abortions.