Pax Orbis

The number of abortions committed in Australia is always an estimate, as official reporting is undertaken in only two states: South Australia and Western Australia. (Northern Territory is yet to report.)

Data from those two states is often extrapolated to provide an estimate for the whole nation. Other sources of data include Medicare records and PBS prescriptions, and most sources explain how they came to their conclusions.

Both pro-life and pro-abortion advocates have expressed a desire to see mandatory reporting undertaken by the states, so that a more precise picture of the abortion landscape can be painted.

Below are given some of the estimates in various categories: since there are discrepancies among professionals, statisticians and other agencies, results are given by year, along with the source.

Please note that a surgical abortion is routinely performed after a medical abortion which is incomplete. This means that the number of total abortions will be slightly inflated.

STATISTICS ON THIS PAGE

• Number of abortions in Australia
• Number of abortions in Victoria
• Number of Abortions in South Australia
• Number of Abortions in Western Australia
• Abortion rate
• Sources
• Downloadable version of this article
• Fact sheets – published by government/pro-abortion sources

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Number of abortions in Australia

• 2005: 83, 210 – prior to rollout of the abortion pill ¹
• 2014/15: 78,732 – total abortions ²
  • 75, 512 = number of surgical abortions
  • 3220 = prescriptions of combination mifepristone/misoprostol for medical abortion
• 2017/18: 88,287 – total abortions ³
  • 67 546 = number of surgical abortions
  • 20, 741 = prescriptions of combination mifepristone/misoprostol for medical abortion
• 2015-2019: 94,000 – Average annual no. of abortions among women aged 15–49 ⁴

FACT SHEET PROVIDED BELOW

Number of abortions in Victoria

• 65, 451 = “abortion with operating room procedure” from Jan 2014 – Dec. 2016 ⁵
  • third most frequent surgical procedure in Victorian hospitals during that time
• 2019: 388 late term abortions (post 20 weeks) ⁶

Number of Abortions in South Australia

• 2023: 4905 total
  • 37 late term (post 22 weeks, 6 days) = 1% of all terminations
  • 2992 abortion pills (61%)
  • 1913 surgical (39%)

FACT SHEET PROVIDED BELOW

Number of Abortions in Western Australia

• 2023: 1642 (Medicare data only) ⁷
• 2022: 8545 total abortions ⁸
  • 76 late term (post 20 weeks)

FACT SHEET PROVIDED BELOW

Abortion rate in Australia

• 15.4 per 1000 women aged 15–44 years, 2015/15 (surgical) ⁹
• 13.2 per 1000 women aged 15–44 years, 2017/18 (surgical) ¹⁰

Sources

1. https://www.childrenbychoice.org.au/organisational-information/papers-reports/abortion-rates-in-australia/ ↩︎
2. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and#4 ↩︎
3. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and#4 ↩︎
4. https://data.guttmacher.org/countries/table?country=AU&topics=406&dataset=data ↩︎
5. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and#4 ↩︎
6. https://www.fpnsw.org.au/sites/default/files/assets/Induced-Abortion-in-Australia_2000-2020.pdf ↩︎
7. https://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/australia/ab-aust-wa.html ↩︎
8. https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/publications/tabledpapers.nsf/displaypaper/4112494c9e8c49354cd8912548258a2a000303cf/$file/tp-2494.pdf ↩︎
9. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and#4 ↩︎
10. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and#4 ↩︎

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Fact sheets

Downloadable PDF Version of this article

AUSTRALIA 2000-2020 (includes individual states’ data)

SOUTH AUSTRALIA 2023

WESTERN AUSTRALIA 2016-2018

MAIN IMAGE SOURCE: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons