Catalunya recorded 14.89 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 last year, keeping it as the region with the highest termination rate in Spain. It’s the seventh year running Catalunya has topped the national rankings. The Balearic Islands came second with 13.87, followed by Madrid (13.56), Asturias (12.89) and Murcia (12.66).
The Health Ministry detailed on Wednesday that 106,172 voluntary terminations took place across Spain in 2024. This represents a 2.98% increase compared to the previous year, with the upward trend particularly notable in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Valencia. The national rate per 1,000 women aged 15-44 rose to 12.36, up from 12.22 the year before.
The report highlights a more significant jump in the rate among non-resident women. Meanwhile, nearly all age groups saw an increase in termination rates, except women aged 20-24 and 25-29. The biggest rise occurred in the 35-39 age group (+0.23 per thousand), followed by 30-34 year olds (+0.16 per thousand).
Among under-20s, there were 11,699 terminations in 2024 compared to 10,934 in 2023, marking 765 more cases (+6.99%). Breaking down by age, 10.68% of terminations were in the 15-19 group, 23.27% in 20-24, 21.84% in 25-29, 19.83% in 30-34, 15.99% in 35-39, and 7.34% in 40-44.
The main reason for termination was the woman’s voluntary decision in 94.62% of cases. Another 2.65% were performed due to serious risk to the mother’s life or health, 2.44% for risk of serious foetal abnormalities, and 0.28% for abnormalities incompatible with life or extremely serious illness.
Regarding timing, 76.58% of procedures happened before eight weeks. Between weeks 9 and 14 accounted for 19.14% of cases, weeks 15-22 for 4.11%, and from week 23 onwards just 0.15%. For recurrence, 67.6% of women had no previous voluntary terminations.
The data shows 57.98% of women were salaried workers, 17.09% were unemployed, another 17.09% were students, 5.41% were self-employed and 0.34% were pensioners. In Catalunya specifically, 55.67% of terminations took place in public centres and 44.32% in private ones, differing from the national pattern where 78.74% occurred in private or contracted centres.
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