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Estimating the number of illegal abortions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Colin Francome
Colin Francome
Affiliation:
Middlesex Polytechnic, Hendon
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Summary

This article considers the methods used to estimate the number of abortions before the 1967 Abortion Act came into operation. It suggests that the registration of legal abortions has enabled a new method to be used to calculate the number of illegal operations. The article concludes that the major effect of the Act was to transfer abortions from the illegal to the legal sector and, using the new method of calculation, estimates a total number of abortions immediately before the Act of just over 100,000 a year.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 1977 , pp. 467 - 479
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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