[Editorial] Abortion: access and safety worldwide (Lancet)

44% of the world`s annual 227 million pregnancies are unintended, of which 56% end in abortion, 32% in an unplanned birth, and 12% in miscarriage. These estimates--from a modelling study authored by the Guttmacher Institute and the University of Massachusetts and published by The Lancet Global Health--form the basis of a Guttmacher report on global abortion published on March 20. This analysis was last performed in 2009, since when the rate of unintended pregnancy and abortion in high-income countries has fallen significantly, concurrent with both an increase in the rate of modern contraception usage and a decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion.