The rate at which women are getting abortions has dropped across the developed world as access to effective contraception has increased, according to a new report, which also concludes that laws restricting abortions do not result in the procedure occurring less frequently, merely less safely.

Abortion rates have significantly declined over the last 25 years in countries that have made contraception more easily available, according to a Guttmacher Institute report published Tuesday.

Globally from 2010 through 2014, 35 abortions were performed per 1,000 women of reproductive age, down from 40 abortions per 1,000 women. The decrease was driven primarily by reductions in countries with liberal abortion laws, where abortion rates dropped from 46 per 1,000 women to 27. Conversely, developing regions – including 93 percent of the countries with the most restrictive abortion laws – saw only a drop from 39 to 36 abortions per 1,000 women

Courtesy of Guttmacher Institute

In 26 countries , abortion is prohibited without exception. The procedure is banned except when it is necessary to save the woman's life in 39 countries. A further 36 countries allow abortion only when it is to save the life or protect a woman's physical health, with an additional 24 countries also allowing abortion in the event of a threat to her mental health. Another 13 countries' laws allow women to give socioeconomic ills as a reason to have an abortion.

Abortion is permitted without restriction as to reason in 61 countries, although many nations, including the United States, place limits on the length of the pregnancy.

Since 2000, the report finds, 28 countries have changed their abortion laws, and all but one – Nicaragua, which now bars abortion in all circumstances – made laws more permissible, including 16 countries that previously had an absolute ban.

The data show that, while stricter abortion laws do not lead to fewer abortions, preventing unwanted pregnancies has a significant effect on reducing the number of terminations.

In countries where laws permit abortion only to save the life of the mother, the abortion rate is higher at 37 per 1,000 women than the rate of 34 abortions per 1,000 in countries without such restrictions.

Latin America has both the highest rate of unintended pregnancies, 96 per 1,000 women, and the highest rate of abortions, 44 per 1,000 women.

Europe has the fewest unintended pregnancies but a higher abortion rate than North America and the Pacific-island area known as Oceana, where fewer abortions take place.

Courtesy of Guttmacher Institute

Although Eastern Europe has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy in the developed world at 54 per 1,000 women, it has dropped nearly in half, from 104 per 1,000 women, in 1990-1994.

In particular, former Soviet Bloc countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that made contraceptives more readily available after the fall of the Soviet Union saw the sharpest decrease in abortion rates of any region, the report found. In Eastern Europe especially, abortion rates fell from 88 to 42 abortions per 1,000 women.

"Improved contraceptive use, and in turn, declines in unintended pregnancy rates are the likely driver behind the worldwide decline in abortion rates," says Susheela Singh, vice president for international research at the Guttmacher Institute. "Most women who have an abortion do so because they did not intend to become pregnant in the first place. Meeting the need for contraception is critical to bringing down rates even further."

Further, abortion procedures have been found to be very safe when conducted using World Health Organization-approved guidelines.

An estimated 55 percent of abortions from 2010 through 2014 were considered safe – conducted using WHO-approved methods by a trained provider. Those that met only one of those two criteria are considered less safe and made up 31 percent of abortions performed. Fourteen percent of abortions met neither criteria and were considered least safe.

The vast majority of the abortions in the latter two categories – 88 percent – took place in the developing world, where approximately half of all abortions – some 25 million procedures annually – were performed under unsafe conditions.

Courtesy of Guttmacher Institute

Abortion safety has direct consequences for the women undergoing the procedure: As of 2014, the report found, at least 22,800 women die each year from complications from abortions that are not considered safe.