By Lyn Smith 

Upon examination of the 1998 abortion figures, one fact is self-evident: the killing of Canadian babies by induced abortion continues on a grand scale. Prior to 1969 abortion was permitted only if necessary to preserve the life of the mother. The law was amended on May 14, 1969 to allow abortion in cases where "the continuation of the pregnancy ... would be likely to endanger the life or health of the mother." The word 'health' was not defined. Abortions were to be performed in accredited hospitals with the approval of a therapeutic abortion committee of three doctors. As a result of the liberalization of the law, over a period of 19 years (1970 to 1988) the lives of 1,143,085 babies were terminated by induced abortion.

In 1988 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the 1969 law on the basis of 'unequal access' to Therapeutic Abortion Committees across Canada. In other words in Canada a child in the womb could now be aborted in both hospitals and clinics at any time, by any means, for any reason, right up to and during birth with impunity. As a result of this lack of any legal protection for the unborn child, it required only 10 years (1989 -1998) to record another 1,021,965 deaths. Between 1970 and 1998 Canadian society has sanctioned the deaths of 2,165,050 babies.

In 1998 Canadian hospitals and clinics reported 110,331 therapeutic abortions: 68,273 were done in the hospitals, 41,761 were done in clinics and 297 were done on Canadian women in the United States. The figures compiled by CIHI and analysed by Statistics Canada provide such limited information that it is impossible to create a true profile of the woman undergoing abortion and of the child being aborted. Selected demographic and medical records for both clinic and hospital abortions are now available for only 61.1% of all abortions performed in 1998 in Canada on Canadian women. To paraphrase the saying, "Don't ask: Don't tell", perhaps the rationale has become if the Canadian Institute for Health Information does not persist in compiling comprehensive data, eventually, Statistics Canada won't have anything to report.

For the first time Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada indicate in their Therapeutic Abortion Survey, 1998 tables an age grouping starting at 10 years of age! The percentage distribution of abortions is based on detailed records for 67,212 abortions. 20.6% of these were performed on at least 13,846 females between 10 to 19 years of age. [The Statistics Canada web site, however, indicates that 464 abortions were done on girls under 15 years of age and that 20,859 were done on girls between the ages of 15-19. This suggests that separate data on the clinics has been collected by Health Canada. Officially only Ontario and Alberta are said to have provided a detailed breakdown of clinic abortions]. Partial records show that 51.3% of the abortions were performed on women between 20 to 29 years and 24.8% were done on women between 30 to 39 years of age. This means that 76.l% of the induced abortions were performed on women from 20 to 39 years of age.

Combined hospital and clinic figures based on those detailed records in the database show that 57.7% of the women were single, 17.1% were married and 10.3% of the women were separated, divorced, widowed or common-law at the time of the abortion. Classed as 'Unknown' is the marital status of 14.9% of the women (10,015). Almost 50% of the women had no previous delivery and 37.4% of the women had undergone at least one previous abortion (25,137 repeat abortions).

The gestational age of the child at the time of the abortion is broken down in this manner: Under 9 weeks - 36.6%: 9 - 12 weeks - 49.5%: 13 -16 weeks - 9.6%: Over 16 weeks - 2.9% and Unknown - 1.5% (1008 babies whose age was not known). The primary initial procedure for abortion is Suction D&C (95.2%). Under "other" initial procedures, 0.7% are listed: i.e. 470 babies were terminated by unexplained methods.

The average stay in hospitals and clinics for abortions is less than one day. Complications incurred are reported for the first complication along with any secondary complication. In 1998, 538 women experienced at least one immediate complication such as haemorrhage, infection, laceration of the cervix, perforation of the uterus, retained products of conception and "other".

Expressing everything in percentages tends to be numbing, even meaningless; however, consider this. The ratio of therapeutic abortions per 100 live births rose from 27.6 in 1994 to 32.2 in 1998! The 1996 census predicted a population of 30 million people, 50% of whom are female. Statistics Canada has said that if the 1993 abortion rate prevails and it has, 1 Canadian woman in 3 will destroy her child by abortion in her lifetime. This figure represents 5 million women. If abortion is truly a "health matter" then comprehensive abortion statistics are vital and integral to the assessment of the status of Canadian women's health.

Lyn Smith is a member of Action Life Ottawa (Inc.)