[Establishment, characteristics and experience of an abortion clinic].

: Abortion became legal in Italy in May 1978; since then the abortion services at the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of Bologna, Italy were able to comply with over 90% of requests for abortion; waiting time between the presentation of the request and the intervention is usually 7 days. Abortion seekers are treated on an outpatient basis; only 1.7% of patients require hospitalization. Only 6 interventions a day are done by the same doctor, who performs abortions 20 days/month. The choice of anesthesia is left to the patient, and abortion is done by vacuum aspiration. The patients are checked prior to discharge, and contraception is discussed and the patient is invited to come back after 1 month. Between June 1978 and September 1979 there were 1852 interruptions of pregnancy. 52.7% of women receive their certificate for abortion at one of the public family health centers, and only 33.4% by a private doctor. The majority of interventions takes place before the 11th week of pregnancy; 33.6% first pregnancies, and only a very limited number of requests are for medical reasons. Most women are in the age group 21-30, 40% are unmarried, most belong to the low middle class, 17.3% are students, and most come from Bologna. 41.6% of women have no children, 27.4% have 1 child, 22.3% have 2 children, and only 8.7% have more than 2 children. Clearly, at least from this study, the choice of abortion is a very conscious one, and it shows that women choose to become mothers only when they so desire.