Nearly three quarters of women (74%) think that surgery is the main way to terminate a pregnancy voluntarily, against only 20% for the drug route.
However, the majority of women welcome the legislation on abortion. Thus, 88% of them believe that this law has improved women’s health and reduced the risks associated with abortions. Likewise, more than 8 in 10 women (82%) say abortion has freed women from the fear of unwanted pregnancy.
Nevertheless, voluntary termination of pregnancy still scares women. As such, 92% of them believe that abortion can be a traumatic event while 83% consider that it is physically painful.
Note, nearly 230,000 abortions were performed in mainland France in 2009, a stable figure compared to previous years. However, the figures are increasing among young women under the age of 18, or nearly 15,000 abortions per year on average.
