Utilization of hospital-based second-trimester abortion in Mexico, 2007-2015

Abstract

Data on the incidence of in-facility second trimester abortions are sparse. We used 2007-2015 hospital discharge data from Mexico’s Automated Hospital Discharge System (SAEH) to assess the frequency of second-trimester abortion in public sector hospitals across Mexico’s 32 states. We identified 145,956 second-trimester abortions from 2007 to 2015. Overall, second-trimester abortions made up 13.4% of the total documented abortions at any gestational age (including those missing gestational age). The annual utilization rate of second-trimester abortion was relatively constant over the time period, fluctuating between 0.5 to 0.6 per 1,000 women. Young, marginalized women were more likely to seek late-term abortion services. Living in a state with a health or fetal anomaly exception was not associated with utilization of second-trimester services. The current state-level legal exceptions do not appear to be increasing utilization to second-trimester abortion services and must be more widely implemented in order to provide access to needed services and ultimately reduce morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion.