Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of abortions in Switzerland is still low by international comparison. Women in Switzerland had 10,848 abortions in 2008, a rate of 6.9 interventions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age, or 141 per 1,000 live births. By comparison, in France the figure was 17.2 per 1,000 women, in Italy 10.6 and in Germany 7.1.
Among Swiss women aged 15-19 years, the rate was slightly lower, 5 per 1,000. About 1 percent of the abortions were performed on women younger than 16.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO), which published the figures 18 June, highlights the fact that the abortion rate tends to be higher in cantons like Geneva that have a university hospital or share an international border because some women come from elsewhere to use the high-quality facilities.
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 19 June 2009.
Filed under: Health
Tags: abortion, child-bearing age, FOSF, France, Geneva, Germany, Italy, live births, Society, statistics, university hospital