Mexican Induced Abortion and Unplanned Pregnancy Causes and Consequences

December 16, 2021, Crawford and O brein

CONCLUSIONS

Due to its clandestine nature, induced abortion is difficult to study. In the Mexican Republic, abortion is strictly prohibited in all states. Except for the Federal District, this report provides estimates of induced abortions by state and age group of women for 2009. A major cause of abortion is unplanned pregnancy.

WE HAVE MADE PROGRESS IN MANY AREAS

Mexican married / united women use contraception at a high rate. 67% use modern methods, while 5% use some less effective traditional methods.

• Widespread use of contraceptives has been a key factor in declining fertility: families have been shrinking continuously in the past twenty years and are now approaching the replacement level of two children per woman.

ILEs in the first trimester were allowed under Federal District law in 2007. In the year in which our estimates correspond roughly, women using the public ILE services had almost no risk of complications because of strict safety protocols.You should have to  know Cuanto cuesta un aborto en Mexico

A LARGE NUMBER OF PREGNANCIES ARE UNPLANNED

It is almost always an unintended pregnancy that leads to an abortion. The number of unintended pregnancies in Mexico is estimated to be over half - 55% - in 2009.

As Mexico's 32 federative entities are divided into six regions according to their level of development, this confirms the pattern achieved in many other countries that unintended pregnancy is more prevalent in more developed areas, like the Federal District, compared to less developed areas, like Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca.

Mexican women of reproductive age experience 71 unintended pregnancies per 1,000 per year, which is very similar to the rate of 72 per 1,000 estimated for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole.
Unintentional pregnancies often result in induced abortions
Abortion is not prohibited by criminalization. Despite legal restrictions in 31 of the 32 states, the Mexican government estimates that half of all unplanned pregnancies are resolved with induced abortions.

• In 2009, there were an estimated 38 induced abortions per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age, which is approximately one million (1,026,000) per year. From 26 per 1,000 women in Region 6 to 54 per 1,000 in Region 1, the rate increases uniformly as the level of development increases.

• Abortion rates have increased by more than 50% since 1990, when they were 25 per 1,000. It suggests that women now face greater difficulties in preventing unintended pregnancy and that they are more motivated to avoid unintended births owing to the increase in the rate (an indicator of population growth).

The abortion estimates by age (developed for the first time in the case of Mexico) show the expected pattern: the highest abortion rates are observed among women aged 20–24 years (55 abortions per 1,000 women in that age group); and gradually decrease with advancing age. Among adolescents 15-19, the rate is second only to that of women 25-29 (44 per 1,000).

The Federal District has the highest abortion rate per capita (54 per 1,000), which is not surprising. Nevertheless, Nuevo León, the northernmost state, has the lowest rate (17 per 1,000), perhaps due to both the low level of unmet contraceptive need and the fact that many women cross over to the United States to find safe and legal contraception.

ABORTIONS IN CLANDESTINE RISK THE HEALTH OF WOMEN AND USE SCARCE RESOURCES

It is generally unsafe to perform a clandestine abortion. According to hospital statistics, abortions are a major burden for women's health and for institutions: in 2009, in public hospitals in Mexico, some 159,000 women were treated for complications related to induced abortions.

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