51% of the Canary Islands who had abortions in 2022 did not use contraceptives. The Canary Islands recorded last year 4,652 voluntary terminations of pregnancy, According to the extensive report published yesterday by the Ministry of Health and carried out by the General Subdirectorate of Health Promotion and Prevention. It represents a slight increase compared to the 4,596 abortions performed in 2021. Of the total, 2,371 of the women who had abortions had not used any contraceptive method, which represents 51% of the total. The 26%, 1,218 used hormonal methods. The rest opted for natural, barrier methods such as condoms, mechanical or other methods.
Regarding the profile of the applicant, the study reflects that the 23% of them were between 23 and 29 years old (1,050 cases), 22% between 30 and 34 years old (1,034) and 20% between 20 and 24 years old (1,010). Added to this are three interruptions carried out in children under 15 years of age, all carried out in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. For the majority of them, 62%, it was the first time they had terminated their pregnancy.
By province the data changes slightly, while in The Palms The majority of the applicants were between 30 and 34 years old. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the majority of applicants for this right were between 25 and 29 years old.
Profile
If the level of education is analyzed, 36% of the women who terminated their pregnancy last year had Baccalaureate or a Vocational Training Cycle (1.691); he 35% had Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) or equivalent and 20% were university students. Added to this is that 58% of them were employed workers (2,706) and 23% were unemployed (1,045).
Almost half of the women who decided to abort last year in the Canary Islands (49%) did not have children. Regarding the weeks of gestation they were at the time of terminating their pregnancy, 62% were eight weeks or less, that is, 2,882 women. Those who were between nine and 14 weeks make up 35% of the total. Besides, 96% of the abortions performed (4,459) were at the woman’s request. 128 of them were due to serious risks of anomalies in the fetus (3%) and fifty due to risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman.
Regarding nationality, 80% of them were Spanishthat is, 3,723 applicants, 7% were of South American origin (332) and 6% (272) from other member countries of the European Union.
The Archipelago has a rate of 10.76 abortions per 100,000 women between 15 and 44 years old, which represents a slight increase compared to the 2021 rate of 10.61. Even so, the Islands are placed below the national average which is 11.68 cases per 100,000 women between 15 and 44 years old. Catalonia is the one that leads the interruption rate at the national level with 14.87 cases per 100,000 women of childbearing age.
