more_vert
THE rate of surgical abortions nationally has declined by 5.1% per year since the listing of mifepristone/misoprostol in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2013.
According to research published by the MJA, national abortion data have not been published in the peer-reviewed literature since 2005.
“It is difficult to estimate the abortion rate in Australia, as most states do not routinely report abortion data, and published national data have been incomplete,” wrote the authors, led by Dr Louise Keogh, a health sociologist at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Health Equity.
“Consequently, some clinicians and academics have been accused of inflating reported rates for political reasons.”
To estimate rates of surgical abortion, Keogh and colleagues analysed publicly available National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) data for 2014–18. The NHMD includes data on all episodes of care in private and public Australian hospitals and day procedure clinics.
“The number of surgical abortions for all women declined from 75 514 (15.4 per 1000 women aged 15–44 years) in 2014‒15 to 67 546 (13.2 per 1000 women aged 15–44 years) in 2017‒18,” Keogh and colleagues reported.
“The mean annual decline in rate was 5.1%. The number of prescriptions of combination mifepristone/misoprostol for medical abortion increased from 3220 in 2014‒15 to 20 741 in 2017‒18.
“The total number of abortions for all women during 2017–18 was therefore 88 287 (17.3 abortions per 1000 women aged 15–44 years), slightly higher than the often cited estimate of 80 000 abortions per year.”
Keogh and colleagues recommended further analysis of Australian data “both to ensure that this medical procedure is provided across Australia, and to contribute to the evidence base informing interventions to improve sexual and reproductive health”.
Also online today at the MJA
Podcast: Dr Mike Catton is Director of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. Dr Julian Druce is the Senior Medical Scientist in the Virus Identification Laboratory of the VIDRL. Dr Leon Caly is a Senior Medical Scientist within the VIDRL … FREE ACCESS permanently.
Research letter: Public support for phasing out the sale of cigarettes in Australia
Brennan et al; doi: 10.5694/mja2.51224 … FREE ACCESS permanently.
Research: The influence of the surveillance time interval on the risk of advanced neoplasia after non‐advanced adenoma removal
Hamarneh et al; doi: 10.5694/mja2.51222 … FREE ACCESS permanently.