During the past decade, unmet need for family planning has remained high
in Pakistan and gains in contraceptive prevalence have been small. Drawing
upon data from a 2012 national study on postabortion-care complications
and a methodology developed by the Guttmacher Institute for estimating
abortion incidence, we estimate that there were 2.2 million abortions in
Pakistan in 2012, an annual abortion rate of 50 per 1,000 women. A previous
study estimated an abortion rate of 27 per 1,000 women in 2002. After taking
into consideration the earlier study’s underestimation of abortion incidence,
we conclude that the abortion rate has likely increased substantially between
2002 and 2012. Varying contraceptive-use patterns and abortion rates are
found among the provinces, with higher abortion rates in Baluchistan and
Sindh than in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. This suggests that strategies
for coping with the otherwise uniformly high unintended pregnancy rates
will differ among provinces. The need for an accelerated and fortified family
planning program is greater than ever, as is the need to implement strategies
to improve the quality and coverage of postabortion services.