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Abortion:
First Nations women have the highest rate of abortion in Canada.
In fact, some white doctors counsel First Nations women to have an abortion because they are "too poor" or "not fit to raise a child". - HackCanada.com
In 2000, the Northwest Territories had the highest abortion rate per live birth in Canada at 41.8 per 100 live births.
Statistics Canada reported that in 2005, the Yukon had the highest rate of abortions for women in Canada between 15 and 44, with 19.6 abortions per 1,0000 women. Quebec had a rate of 18.8 per 1,000 and Nunavut and the Northwest Territories results were supressed under the confidentiality agreement of the Statistics Act. The national average was 14.1, with PEI coming in last at 4.4.
In that same study, for abortion rates per 100 live births, Yukon was once again the highest with 43.8. The national average was 28.3. Yukon was also the highest for induced abortions.
The incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is 25 times greater than the world average in First Nations communities.
Between 1980 and 1994, the teen birth rate for on and off-reserve Status Indians in Manitoba dropped from 32.4% of live births to 23.0%. First Nations teen birth rate remains approximately three times the level for other citizens. This fact, more than any other, explains the maintenance of high birth rates in the face of sharp declines in fertility rates for First Nations women. Aboriginal generations are closer together in age. -Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs
Suicide:
According to Health Canada, in 1999 suicide and self-injury was the leading case of death for Inuit youth and young adults up to age 44.
Canada's First Nations has the highest suicide rate of any people group in the world.
The youth suicide rate for Aboriginals are five to seven times higher than the national average, and the youth suicide rates for Inuit are 11 times higher than the national average. (Royal Commission on Aboriginal People.)
The suicide rate for Aboriginal young men between 15-24 years old is twice the rate of Aboriginal men over 25. (The Canadian Task Force on Preventative Healthcare.)
These statistics are much lower than reality because they do not include non-status First Nations, Metis, and Inuit living off of reserves.
Suicide rates in Nunavut and Nunavik have more than doubled in the past decade.
82% of suicides in Nunavut are by hanging, often in a bedroom closet.
