March 21, 2024 — CIHI captures administrative, clinical and demographic data on induced abortions performed in Canadian hospitals. Data is supplied by provincial and territorial ministries of health, hospitals, independent abortion-specific clinics and other clinics in Canada. CIHI also captures data on physician payments and physicians’ level of activity within Canada’s health care systems, including physician billing data for induced abortions. Data from clinics providing abortion services is submitted voluntarily to CIHI. Counts reported include induced abortions performed in a hospital or in a non-hospital setting providing abortion services in Canada.
The methodology to report 2022 induced abortion volumes is consistent with the enhanced methodology that was introduced in the previous 2021 report.
The tables contain information regarding data sources and coding methodology.
Frequently asked questions
Why is physician billing data used for some provinces only?
Due to variations in physician billing data capture and completeness across the country, it was not feasible to use the revised methodology for all jurisdictions; this has resulted in some ongoing underestimation of total abortion volumes. More comprehensive reporting may be available in future CIHI releases.
Do the results include the number of induced abortions from RU-486/mifepristone/Mifegymiso?
Reported volumes include abortions induced by Mifegymiso that occurred in a hospital, that were reported voluntarily by clinics or that were captured in the medical abortion physician billing codes. The data does not permit us to report these volumes separately because there is no unique code to identify Mifegymiso in the data sources. A high-level breakdown by method of abortion can be found in Table 3.
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Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2022
These data tables provide information on induced abortions performed in a hospital or in a non-hospital setting in Canada. Volume breakdowns by age group and method of abortion are also included.
Annual data tables
These tables contain information on induced abortions in Canada from 2015 onward.
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