Induced abortion as a means of fertility control has a long history in the republics of the former Soviet Union. Induced abortion was first legalized in the Soviet Union in 1920 but was banned in 1936 as part of a pro-natalist policy emphasizing population growth. This decision was reversed in 1955 when abortion for nonmedical reasons was again legalized throughout the former Soviet Union. The practice of induced abortion can adversely affect a woman’s health, reduce her chances for further childbearing, and contributes to maternal and perinatal mortality. The Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic (MOH) has been concerned about the impact of abortion on women’s health and, in particular, the impact of repeat abortion. In an effort to curtail this practice the MOH is committed to providing the population with a broad choice of modern, safe, and effective contraceptive methods. International experience with the collection of abortion data in population surveys has been relatively unsuccessful in many populations because of respondent reluctance to report events that are associated with social stigmas. However, in the republics of the former Soviet Union and in many Eastern European countries, induced abortion is an accepted means of fertility control. In several of these countries household surveys have collected data on this topic with apparent success (NIN and MI, 1996; IOG and MI, 1997; RCPOMR and CDC, 1997). Accordingly, questions on abortion were pretested and included in the final questionnaires for the KRDHS. Information about induced abortion was collected in the reproductive section of the Women’s Questionnaire (Appendix E). The section began with a series of questions to determine the total number of live births, induced abortions, miscarriages and stillbirths that a respondent has had. When reporting the number of abortions, respondents were told to include pregnancies terminated by vacuum aspiration (i.e., mini-abortions) 1 . Next an event-by-event pregnancy history was collected. For each pregnancy, the type of outcome and year and month of termination were recorded. 2