A study of reported therapeutic abortions in North Carolina

Legislation in 1967 allowed abortions in North Carolina for reasons of mental or physical danger to the mother or child or in cases of rape. In 1971 the statute was changed to require 2 rather than 3 physicians in agreement, to reduce residency requirements from 4 months to 30 days, and mandatory reporting of all abortions. A study of reported abortions since 1967 is undertaken for time trends, differences, distribution, and complications of patients in 1971 voluntary versus mandatory reporting, and abortion ratio for mandatory reporting period. 4378 abortion were reported for 1971. 70.6% of the women were white; 29.4 nonwhite. The most frequent indication was for psychiatric reasons (90%) and the most frequent procedure was suction curettage. Mean age was 23.6 years; mean gestation was 11.9 weeks. In comparison to national data for 1971, North Carolina had similar age distribution, later performance of abortion in terms of gestational age, and similar distribution of operational procedures

Abortion · Environmental health · Family medicine · Family planning · Induced Abortions · Obstetrics · Population · Pregnancy · Research methodology · Statute · Therapeutic abortion · Demography · Law · Medicine · Reproductive Health and Contraception