Abstract : Abortion is not only a major cause of obstetric hospitalization in poor countries, but it also represents the failure of the public health system to provide enough information about contraceptive methods and thus prevent pregnancies. In Brazil, the high utilization rates of health facilities due to abortions reflect the on-going difficulties with family planning and contraception. In addition, mortality resulting from abortions serves as an indicator of the quality of abortion procedures, an important point in a country where the practice is illegal and therefore done clandestinely. In this study, the authors analyzed the rates of mortality resulting from abortions among women 10-54 years old, including women who died from spontaneous and induced abortion, during 1980-95, for the various regions of the country. The information the authors used came from the mortality data bank of the public health system of the Ministry of Health. Population data were obtained from the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics. The authors studied 2602 deaths, 15% of which were due to missed abortion, spontaneous abortion, or legally permitted induced abortion. The other 85% of the deaths were due to illegal induced abortions or to non-specified abortions. The mortality rates from abortion-related causes have steadily decreased in all the regions of Brazil, but this improvement has unevenly distributed in the country. The region with the smallest decrease in this rate (38% over 15 years) was the northeast. The age of women dying from abortions progressively declined over the period studied. (author's)
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