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TEXT SEVEN When Catholicclergy or pro-life politicians argue that abortion laws should betightened, they do so in the belief that this will reduce the number ofterminations. Yet the largest global study of abortion ever undertaken castsdoubt on that simple proposition. Restricting abortions, the study says, haslittle effect on the number of pregnancies terminated. Rather, it drives womento seek illegal, often unsafe backstreet abortions leading to an estimated67,000 deaths a year. A further 5m women require hospital treatment as a resultof botched procedures. In Africa andAsia, where abortion is generally either illegal or restricted, the abortionrate in 2003 was 29 per 1,000women aged 15-44. This is almost identical to the rate in Europe-28-where legalabortions are widely available. Latin America, which has some of the worlds most restrictive abortion laws,is the region with the highest abortion rate , while western Europe, whichhas some of the most liberal laws, has the lowest . The study,carried out by the Guttmacher Institute in New York in collaboration with theWorld Health Organisation and published in a British medical journal, theLancet, found that most abortions occur in developing countries-35m a year,compared with just 7m in rich countries. But this was largely a reflection ofpopulation size. A womans likelihood of having an abortion is similar whether she lives in a richcountry or a poor or middle-income one . | 
