American teenagers have the highest rate of abortion in the developed world, more than double that of teenagers in most European countries, according to a new U.N. report.
The report released Tuesday by the world body's Population Division also found the United States to have the highest teenage pregnancy rate, contrasting with declining rates in almost every other developed country.About 9.8 percent of U.S. females ranging in age from 15 to 19 are becoming pregnant on an annual basis, the highest rate among the nations studied. Hungary ranked second at 8.5 percent.
Japan was lowest overall at 1 percent. The Netherlands was lowest in Europe at 1.2 percent, and most other European nations averaged about 3.5 percent.
In the United States, 4.4 percent of women in the age group studied had abortions on a yearly basis, compared with 2.7 percent in Hungary, 0.5 percent in the Netherlands and 0.6 percent in Japan.
The report, titled "Adolescent Reproductive Behavior," deals only with developed nations. The pregnancy and abortion rates it cites represent the latest figures available for each country.
"The option to carry a pregnancy to term is becoming less and less popular among pregnant teenagers," the report says.