Interim Staff

Statistics Canada released figures for the number of abortions committed in 2002, the latest year for which such statistics are available. Official figures show the lives of 105,154 unborn children were killed by abortion in 2002, down one per cent from 106,270 in 2001.

The abortion rate also fell marginally from 15.6 abortions per 1,000 women in 2001 to 15.4 abortions per 1,000 women in 2002. The number of induced abortions per 100 live births was 32.1 in 2002, virtually unchanged from 2001.

These numbers exclude data related to residents of Nunavut.

Campaign Life Coalition pointed out in a press release that with more than 100,000 deaths each year, abortion is the leading cause of death in Canada. “The number one killer in our country continues to be the deliberate killing by abortion in Canadian hospitals and abortuaries. The most dangerous place to be in Canada is the womb,” it said.

Some media played up the notion that abortion is on the decline in Canada, but CLC national president Jim Hughes said the drop was statistically insignificant and could be misleading. He noted that for various reasons, some women’s abortions may not be officially counted as abortions.

But beyond the numbers, Hughes noted that the reality and horror of abortion were obscured by reducing abortion to a mere statistic. “These are helpless individuals who were callously killed by those who are trained to heal,” Hughes said. “Abortions are committed in alarming numbers in teaching hospitals and in front-alley abortuaries staffed by paid killers. Each one of these babies deserved a right to be born and to be protected by us.”

CLC also highlighted that Canada’s below-replacement-level birthrate is largely a result of Canada’s abortion policies. CLC national organizer Mary Ellen Douglas observed that, “Canada is a dying nation. Other stats show that we are not replacing ourselves and our birthrate is dangerously low, yet we continue to kill our own future.”

Abortion since 1969
1969 – 4,378
1973 – 43,201
1983 – 65,385
1993 – 103,942
2003 – 105,154

Number of abortions committed in Canada by year