Abortion rare
p. 24 · Read in the full issue
WHILE the debate is at a fever pitch over abortions in Guam they are infre quent, at least by United States Mainland standards.
In recent years there have been more than 3000 five births each year on Guam, in comparison there were 82 abortions recorded in 1988 by public health authorities rising to 159 in 1989.
The latter figure works out to 53 abor tions to 1000 live births, the usual statis tical measuring device.
On the Mainland, the ratio is about 425 abortions to 1000 live births; in Hawaii it is higher, 611 per thousand, while in Washington, D.C. there are routinely more abortions than live births.
Some of the abortions in Guam in re cent years may have been performed on women from the nearby Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, where abor tions are illegal. The constitutionality of the Marianas ban may be challenged as a by-product of the legal activity on this matter in Guam. □