May countries have abortion rates lower than Holland and Switzerland

ANNE-MARIE REY of Abortion-Information in Berne, Switzerland (Letters, January 28) is not entirely accurate when she claims that Dutch and Swiss abortion figures are among the lowest worldwide.

What about Poland, Malta and the Republic of Ireland, to say nothing of many South American and African countries? And please don’t cite unsubstantiated figures for illegal abortions. In 2006, our Republic had 5,042 induced abortions — a rate of 5.2 per 1,000 women aged 15-44, lower than the figures Ms Rey cites for Holland (8.6 per 1,000) and Switzerland (six per 1,000). I am informed that Swiss federal statistics for 2006 cite a rate of 6.8 per 1,000, considerably higher than Ms Rey’s rate.

As regards the Dutch figures, including the very early abortions ‘voluntarily’ reported, while they have been fairly stable since 2001 — at 28,000 to 29,000 per annum — that is a considerable rise from 21,000 in 1995 and 17,000 in 1985.