11 - 14 year-old abortions

Statistics New Zealand has just released the 2005 abortion statistics which show a drop in the overall rate. One thing noticeable in the tables was the 11 - 14 year-old rate has reached 0.8 per 1000 females or 92 abortions. The rate has doubled what it was in the early nineties.

Abortions performed at 12 weeks made up;

1995 29 percent
1996 25.8
1997 22.8
1998 23.9
1999 24.1
2000 24
2001 26.7
2002 28.1
2003 29
2004 25.6
2005 28.1

I did these calculations to prove or disprove what we have been hearing from abortion practitioners - that the delay was getting longer. The figures don't support that BUT if late abortions are being performed in Australia they would be registered in Australia. Which then begs the question, is our rate really down or is the drop, 680 in absolute terms, due to abortions being performed off shore? It seems unlikely that number would have travelled to Australia.

The ethnic breakdown is;
European 51.6
Maori 20.6
Pacific 10.9
Asian 15.7
Other 1.2

Compared to thirteen other "selected low fertility" countries only the US has a higher rate (which may now be around the same as ours as it is dropping but no stats are given for the last two years.)