Dr. Gilda Sedgh:

I thank the Deputy for asking me to elaborate on whether the floodgates will open if the abortion laws changed. The slide with country-specific abortion rates shows that almost half of the countries have abortion rates lower than ten. The countries with the lowest abortion rates on record are countries where abortion is allowed on broad grounds. The countries where we see the sharpest declines in the abortion rate on record are countries that have allowed abortion on broad grounds throughout the period of the decline. These findings indicate that a liberal abortion law does not necessarily represent the groundwork or setting for a high abortion rate. I could elaborate but I will stop there because there is limited time and there are many questions in the Deputy's set of questions.