Hong Kong has the highest abortion rate in the developed world, with almost 30 per cent of pregnancies terminated, according to a news report Sunday. Hong Kong hospitals carried out 20,235 abortions in 2001, the last year figures were available, compared to 49,144 live births during the same period. The abortion rate equated to 29.2 per cent of pregnancies, higher than anywhere else in the developed world, the Sunday Morning Post newspaper reported. The U.S. has a termination rate of 24.4 per cent, Canada has a rate of 24.3 per cent and Australia has a rate of 23.7 per cent. Welfare groups quoted by the newspaper said Hong Kong's real abortion rate could be much higher as many teenagers travel across the border to mainland China to have secret terminations. Susan Law, counselor with teen pregnancy support group, told the newspaper girls were often "confused, worried and frustrated" over their condition and the first thing that came to mind was abortion. "They think it's safe, quick and efficient," she said. "In Chinese culture, its shameful to be unmarried and pregnant." As well as an increasing rate of teen pregnancies, Hong Kong has a high rate of abortions within marriage as families have fewer and fewer children. Hong Kong's birth rate is one of the world's lowest, with women having an average of less than one child each, a third of the birth rate 20 years ago. Cramped high-rise living conditions and successive economic downturns in the former British colony of 6.8 million people have combined to discourage couples from having children.
