Termination of pregnancy in New South Wales, 1990

Abstract: This article reports on terminations of pregnancy done in New South Wales (NSW) for NSW residents, using routinely collected data from the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) and the NSW Inpatient Statistics Collection (ISC). The HIC and ISC recorded 29 348 terminations for NSW residents in 1990, representing a termination rate of 21.6 per 1000 women aged 15 to 44. Terminations were frequent at all ages, but the highest termination rate was in the 20 to 24 age range (36.8 per 1000). About one-quarter of all known pregnancies were terminated (excluding spontaneous abortions). The majority of terminations were done in private clinics; only 10 per cent of women having terminations were public patients in public hospitals. Outside the Sydney metropolitan area, termination rates were lower than in Sydney, and the procedures were more likely to be done in public hospitals. Large numbers of terminations are done in NSW, but the rate appears to have been constant since the early 1980s.