Abortion has been a controversial subject in many societies through history because of the moral, ethical, practical, and political power issues that surround it. It has been banned frequently and otherwise limited by law. However, in the 1970’s, the first developed countries legalised abortion. Nowadays, abortion rights are available in most European countries under various legal and/practical conditions.

Abortion statistics reflect the consequences of societies’ legislative and religious views, as well as the socioeconomic health of the female population.¹ With this website we aim to provide with reliable legal, practical and statistical data on abortion in Europe, to compare the status quo and recent trends in abortion data between countries.

This website offers dynamic data integration for a better user experience by presenting data through interactive graphs. This smart data management allows for easy side-by-side comparison between countries, up to three countries simultaneously. The website also offers the possibility to download country data of the last ten years, and beyond when available, in the form of a pdf report for any given country.

Each year we work with our correspondents in several countries to update the website with the most recent local data available, based on reliable official sources. It is noteworthy that when comparing countries, the actual differences in abortion figures, sometimes hardly available for some countries, may be confounded by differences in the completeness of the national reporting system.

We hope that providing easy access to official abortion data will help raise awareness and ultimately improve access to safe and essential abortion care.

¹Fiala C, Agostini A, Bombas T et al. Abortion: legislation and statistics in Europe. Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care. 2022 Aug;27(4):345-352.