Dr. Gilda Sedgh:

I thank the Senator. The statisticians on our team would say that I was remiss if I did not point out that there is no statistically significant difference in the abortion rate of countries with restrictive abortion laws and those with liberal abortion laws because of the margins of error. Having said that, the Senator is correct. The point estimate is such that the abortion rate is actually lower on average in countries in which it is allowed on request. It is probably worth reinforcing what seems to be behind what we are seeing. First of all, in countries in which abortion is allowed without restriction as to reason we see some of the lowest abortion rates on record and also some of the highest rates on record. Those are the countries in eastern Europe and the average rate comes out to approximately 34. What differentiates the countries with high abortion rates from those with low abortion rates is not the legal status of abortion in those countries, but the level of unmet need for contraception or the proportion of women who wish to avoid getting pregnant and are not using a method of contraception. We would see a completely different chart if, along the bottom axis, one was looking at the level of unmet need for contraception. One would see very different abortion rates in those groups of countries. I hope that makes sense.