Abortion: legislation and statistics in Europe

Objective: The Parliamentary Assembly invited the member states of the Council of Europe to 'guarantee women's effective exercise of their right of access to a safe and legal abortion'. While abortion legislation and statistics give an impression of the legislative, cultural, and religious views of the societies and the socio-economic health of the female population, only one study conducted in 2011 looked into the current legislation and trends in terminations of pregnancy in the European Union. Materials and Methods: From January 2017 to December 2018, a group of experts, the authors of the present article, liaised with colleagues practising in 32 European countries to collect data on abortion legislation and statistics using three different questionnaires. Results: The article presents the results of this initiative and compares the status quo and recent trends in abortion legislation and statistics across Europe. Conclusions: The European legislations are still very heterogenous and abortion rates vary widely between countries, confirming that laws do not correlate with abortion rates. This compilation of data, also available on a website (www.abort-report.eu), may help to change laws to better meet the needs of women who decided to have an abortion as a solution to the underlying problem of an unwanted pregnancy.