Albania's number of abortions rising

And year after year the number of babies coming to life is dropping rapidly, and by 2018 the number of abortions has also seen growth. According to data published by INSTAT and collected by the Public Health Institute, the number of abortions in 2018 was 5,532 out of 5,279 that had been a year earlier. However, gynecologists say that figures do not always indicate growth, since they also weigh cases with unregistered abortions.

Diana Canay, a gynecologist, said that there is no accurate record of abortions.

I don't think there's any growth, I think it's in those numbers. By performing medical abortions, they are not registered. Only the blackouts made of tools are recorded, so we don't have an exact recording of the” abortions, she said.

She says before women decide for abortion within 12 weeks they have a week for reflection

If a patient appears to have an abortion, we have a week of reflection. What does that mean? This means that during this week the patient will reflect, relax to make another” decision.

The data shows that abortions by highly educated women have increased by a quarter of the cases of pregnancy suspension. In 2014, only 15% of abortions were performed by women who were highly educated, while nearly half of them were women who had little school class.