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La fréquence des avortements volontaires a baissé dans le monde au cours des années 1990, passant de 35 avortements pour 1 000 femmes en âge de procréer (ayant entre 15 et 44 ans) en 1995 à 29 ‰ en 2003. Mais elle s'est stabilisée dans les années 2000 (28 ‰ en 2008), parce que la diffusion de la contraception a marqué le pas dans les pays en développement. La proportion d'avortements non sécurisés, c'est-à-dire, selon l'OMS, « pratiqués par des personnes non qualifiées ou dans un environnement non conforme aux normes médicales minimales, ou les deux », n'a pas baissé et représente encore près de la moitié des avortements volontaires (49 % en 2008). De façon paradoxale, la mortalité liée à l'avortement a diminué de manière continue depuis deux décennies, passant de 60 décès maternels pour 100 000 naissances vivantes en 1990 à 40 décès en 2008. La baisse a été particulièrement marquée en Amérique latine alors que l'avortement y reste pourtant fermement condamné. Cette évolution est liée en partie à la diffusion de l'avortement médicamenteux dans des pays où il reste illégal. Aujourd'hui, illégalité ne rime plus systématiquement avec insécurité.

Legal abortions are authorized medical procedures, and as such, they are or can be recorded at the health facility where they are performed. The incidence of illegal, often unsafe, induced abortion has to be estimated, however. In the literature, no fewer than eight methods have been used to estimate the frequency of induced abortion: the "illegal abortion provider survey," the "complications statistics" approach, the "mortality statistics" approach, self‐reporting techniques, prospective studies, the "residual" method, anonymous third party reports, and experts' estimates. This article describes the methodological requirements of each of these methods and discusses their biases. Empirical records for each method are reviewed, with particular attention paid to the contexts in which the method has been employed successfully. Finally, the choice of an appropriate method of estimation is discussed, depending on the context in which it is to be applied and on the goal of the estimation effort.

L'avortement est une pratique de régulation de la fécondité utilisée par les femmes en cas d'absence ou d'échec de la contraception. Les législations régulant sa pratique vont, selon les pays, de l'autorisation à la demande de la femme à un accès restrictif voire une interdiction totale. Lorsqu'il est acquis, ce droit est fréquemment remis en question. Les débats entourant la légalisation se centrent sur le droit des femmes, celui de l'embryon et les conséquences sanitaires des avortements non sécurisés. Mais légal ou interdit, les femmes du monde entier recourent à l'avortement, avec de grandes disparités dans l'intensité de sa pratique et de ses conséquences sanitaires et sociales. Les niveaux de sécurité de l'avortement sont divers dans le monde (avortement sécurisé, à risque modéré ou grave), mais ce sont améliorés avec la diffusion de l'avortement médicamenteux, en particulier dans certains pays où l'accès légal est restreint, se substituant aux méthodes les plus à risque. Les données disponibles sont très hétérogènes : des statistiques sanitaires dans les pays où il est légal, aux données d'enquêtes à complétudes variables, en passant par des estimations sophistiquées dans les pays où son accès légal est restreint.

Abortion is a fertility regulation practice that women use in the absence of contraception or when contraceptives fail. Laws regulating this practice in different countries range from allowing it on request to restrictive access and even total prohibition. Where the right to abortion is established, it is frequently challenged. Debates around legalization are centred on the rights of women, the rights of the embryo, and the health consequences of unsafe abortions. But whether abortion is legal or prohibited, women around the world resort to it, with great disparities in the intensity of the practice and its health and social consequences. Levels of safety of abortions varies widely between countries and regions (safe, less safe, and least safe). They have improved with the spread of medical abortion, particularly in countries with legal limits on access, where they replace riskier methods. The available data are highly heterogeneous: from healthcare statistics in countries where abortion is legal, to survey data of varying levels of completeness, and including the use of sophisticated methods to estimate levels in countries where legal access is restricted. ; L'avortement est une pratique de régulation de la fécondité utilisée par les femmes en cas d'absence ou d'échec de la contraception. Les législations régulant sa pratique vont, selon les pays, de l'autorisation à la demande de la femme à un accès restrictif voire une interdiction totale. Lorsqu'il est acquis, ce droit est fréquemment remis en question. Les débats entourant la légalisation se centrent sur le droit des femmes, celui de l'embryon et les conséquences sanitaires des avortements non sécurisés. Mais légal ou interdit, les femmes du monde entier recourent à l'avortement, avec de grandes disparités dans l'intensité de sa pratique et de ses conséquences sanitaires et sociales. Les niveaux de sécurité de l'avortement sont divers dans le monde (avortement sécurisé, à risque modéré ou grave), mais se sont améliorés avec la diffusion de l'avortement ...

International audience ; Abortion is a fertility regulation practice that women use in the absence of contraception or when contraceptives fail. Laws regulating this practice in different countries range from allowing it on request to restrictive access and even total prohibition. Where the right to abortion is established, it is frequently challenged. Debates around legalization are centred on the rights of women, the rights of the embryo, and the health consequences of unsafe abortions. But whether abortion is legal or prohibited, women around the world resort to it, with great disparities in the intensity of the practice and its health and social consequences. Levels of safety of abortions varies widely between countries and regions (safe, less safe, and least safe). They have improved with the spread of medical abortion, particularly in countries with legal limits on access, where they replace riskier methods. The available data are highly heterogeneous: from healthcare statistics in countries where abortion is legal, to survey data of varying levels of completeness, and including the use of sophisticated methods to estimate levels in countries where legal access is restricted. ; L'avortement est une pratique de régulation de la fécondité utilisée par les femmes en cas d'absence ou d'échec de la contraception. Les législations régulant sa pratique vont, selon les pays, de l'autorisation à la demande de la femme à un accès restrictif voire une interdiction totale. Lorsqu'il est acquis, ce droit est fréquemment remis en question. Les débats entourant la légalisation se centrent sur le droit des femmes, celui de l'embryon et les conséquences sanitaires des avortements non sécurisés. Mais légal ou interdit, les femmes du monde entier recourent à l'avortement, avec de grandes disparités dans l'intensité de sa pratique et de ses conséquences sanitaires et sociales. Les niveaux de sécurité de l'avortement sont divers dans le monde (avortement sécurisé, à risque modéré ou grave), mais se sont améliorés avec la ...

International audience ; Abortion is a fertility regulation practice that women use in the absence of contraception or when contraceptives fail. Laws regulating this practice in different countries range from allowing it on request to restrictive access and even total prohibition. Where the right to abortion is established, it is frequently challenged. Debates around legalization are centred on the rights of women, the rights of the embryo, and the health consequences of unsafe abortions. But whether abortion is legal or prohibited, women around the world resort to it, with great disparities in the intensity of the practice and its health and social consequences. Levels of safety of abortions varies widely between countries and regions (safe, less safe, and least safe). They have improved with the spread of medical abortion, particularly in countries with legal limits on access, where they replace riskier methods. The available data are highly heterogeneous: from healthcare statistics in countries where abortion is legal, to survey data of varying levels of completeness, and including the use of sophisticated methods to estimate levels in countries where legal access is restricted. ; L'avortement est une pratique de régulation de la fécondité utilisée par les femmes en cas d'absence ou d'échec de la contraception. Les législations régulant sa pratique vont, selon les pays, de l'autorisation à la demande de la femme à un accès restrictif voire une interdiction totale. Lorsqu'il est acquis, ce droit est fréquemment remis en question. Les débats entourant la légalisation se centrent sur le droit des femmes, celui de l'embryon et les conséquences sanitaires des avortements non sécurisés. Mais légal ou interdit, les femmes du monde entier recourent à l'avortement, avec de grandes disparités dans l'intensité de sa pratique et de ses conséquences sanitaires et sociales. Les niveaux de sécurité de l'avortement sont divers dans le monde (avortement sécurisé, à risque modéré ou grave), mais se sont améliorés avec la diffusion de l'avortement médicamenteux, en particulier dans certains pays où l'accès légal est restreint, se substituant aux méthodes les plus à risque. Les données disponibles sont très hétérogènes : des statistiques sanitaires dans les pays où il est légal, aux données d'enquêtes à complétudes variables, en passant par des estimations sophistiquées dans les pays où son accès légal est restreint.

The existing literature shows that the social interactions in personal networks affect individuals' reproductive attitudes and behavior through three mechanisms: social influence, social learning, and social support. In this article, we discuss the extent to which the socio-psychological model of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) takes these social mechanisms into account when used in modeling fertility intentions and behavior. We argue that by integrating all three social network mechanisms, the ability of the TPB to explain reproductive events could be enhanced in two respects. First, social influence explains why some beliefs and practices are reproduced at the individual level even in the face of macro-level changes, and social learning mechanisms are crucial to distinguish who finally adopts new behavioral beliefs and practices in response to changes at the macro level. Second, social support relationships represent a capital of services to complement institutional provision (informal child care) as well as a capital of knowledge which helps individuals navigate in a complex institutional environment, providing a crucial element to explain heterogeneity in the successful realization of fertility intentions across individuals. The integration of the three social network mechanisms into the TPB helps to address the connection between changes in what the theory indicates as background factors and variation in individual intentions and behavior. We develop specific hypotheses concerning the effect of social interactions on fertility intentions and their realization and conclude with a critical review of the existing surveys that could serve to test these hypotheses and their limits.

Since 1971 the Swiss Federal Statistical Office has published annual fertility data split by nationality (Swiss/foreign). These indicate that the TFR for women of foreign nationality has been 0.5 children higher than for Swiss women for most of the period since 1991. However, statistics from household registration (STATPOP) and the Families and Generations Surveys (FGS) in 2013 and 2018 indicate that foreign women, approaching the end of their reproductive lives, have slightly smaller families than women of Swiss nationality. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile these contradictory fertility measures. To do this, we design a novel methodology for tallying the fertility of cohorts of Swiss and foreign nationals through their reproductive life. In addition to birth registrations and population totals by age (the input data for calculating the TFR) we also include estimates of how many children women have at the time of their immigration, emigration and naturalisation. Using these input data, we compile the fertility profiles of Swiss and foreign women aged 15-49 (cohorts 1966-2003). These correspond well with the FGS and household register data. Several processes impact the final fertility of the two sub-populations. Women frequently immigrate into Switzerland in their 20s. Often arriving childless, they commonly start childbearing soon after immigration. However, there is still a flow of low-fertility women into the country in their 30s and 40s, lowering the average fertility of the foreign population. By contrast, Swiss women start childbearing later and a significant proportion remain childless; however, after starting childbearing they have a higher propensity than foreign women to have a second and third child. Naturalisation and fertility are interlinked; women with children are more likely to naturalise than those without, which then boosts the average fertility of the Swiss population. We confirm that the standard TFR gives an inflated impression of the ultimate (cohort) fertility of foreign nationals and under-estimates that of Swiss women, and we describe how this happens. Fundamentally, the TFR is a measure of childbearing intensity, not an accurate estimate of completed cohort fertility, especially for a mobile population.

Natural methods of contraception were widely used in developed countries until the late 1960s to space and limit childbirth. In France, when the first contraceptive surveys were conducted, researchers noticed that the use of natural methods was underreported, and questions to correct for this bias were subsequently added. The Demographic and Health Surveys do not currently include questions specific to natural methods. We added such questions to the standard DHS question regarding current contraceptive use when we conducted the Health and Demographic Surveillance System of Ouagadougou (2010 Ouaga HDSS) health survey in Burkina Faso among 758 women aged 15–49. Doing so enabled us to find a notable increase in the proportion of women in union who reported practicing contraception: 58 percent, compared with 38 percent in Ouagadougou in the 2010 Burkina Faso DHS. Thirty‐two percent of women reported using modern medical methods or condoms in both surveys, but use of natural methods was much greater in the 2010 Ouaga HDSS health survey (26 percent) than in the 2010 Burkina Faso DHS (5 percent). Many women classified as having unmet need for family planning in Ouagadougou by the DHS data are in fact users of natural methods. Additional questions that would measure use of natural methods more completely should be tested in different settings.