La fréquence des avortements volontaires a baissé dans le monde au cours des années 1990, passant de 35 avortements pour 1 000 femmes en âge de procréer (ayant entre 15 et 44 ans) en 1995 à 29 ‰ en 2003. Mais elle s'est stabilisée dans les années 2000 (28 ‰ en 2008), parce que la...

Since 1971 the Swiss Federal Statistical Office has published annual fertility data split by nationality (Swiss/foreign). These indicate that the TFR for women of foreign nationality has been 0.5 children higher than for Swiss women for most of the period since 1991. However, statistics from...

The contraceptive practices of young women (aged 15-29) underwent two important evolutions during recent decades in France. First of all, beginning in the late 1960s, the use of the pill became general in this age group. However, its diffusion was not yet complete when the AIDS epidemic appeared...

Cross-country comparisons show that family policies supporting the work-family combination are related to higher fertility in industrialised countries. We argue that within each country, there is a dominant norm about the care of small children, linked to the shape of family policy, that...

The current total fertility rate in France is around 1.9 children per woman. This is a relatively high level by current European standards and makes France an outlier, despite the fact that its other demographic trends, especially conjugal behaviour, and social and economic trends are not very...

European countries in which mothers are encouraged to remain in the labour market have higher fertility levels. It is difficult, however, to link specific policies to fertility increases. We hypothesize that policy changes do not affect fertility decisions in the short term as long as external...

Abortion was legalized in France in 1975. Several amendments to the abortion act were passed in 2001 aimed at facilitating women?s access to pregnancy termination. In particular, the maximum gestational age at which elective termination may be performed (the legal limit) was extended by two...

How has the number of abortions in metropolitan France varied since 1975? The sources of abortion data (notification forms established in 1975 and hospital statistics since the mid-1990s) do not agree. Given the incomplete nature of the notification form data, INED previously produced estimates...

Using results from the ethnographic literature and two qualitative studies on people’s representations of different means of birth control (abstinence, contraception, abortion) in two populations in Burkina Faso (one rural and one urban), we designed a multi-dimensional quantitative scale...