Legal Abortion in Eastern Europe

Data on legal abortion in Eastern Europe, based mainly on materials presented at the 1960 International Conference on Abortion, Problems and Abortion Control, held in Rostock-Warnemunde, East Germany, are discussed. In most countries of Eastern Europe, since 1955, abortion on demand of the mother or because of social indications has been legalized. East Germany, however, has not legalized abortion for other than medical reasons. By 1959, legal abortions had risen to one-tenth the number of live births in Poland, to one-third each in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, and exceeded live births in Hungary. Criminal abortion declined. Legal abortions have been restricted to the first 3 months of pregnancy unless there was a medical indication, and this provision resulted in very low death rates related to abortions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia (6/100,000 abortions). The low death rates compare favorably with mortality from all complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium in other advanced Western countries. It is concluded that while society's attitude toward induced abortion is a social and moral problem, that issue should not be clouded by unfounded claims of inherent procedural dangers.