Although abortion is illegal in every Latin American country except Cuba, induced abortion is being widely practiced throughout the region. Health planners need reasonable estimates of the prevalence of this practice. A methodology is provided for estimating the numbers of illegal abortions being performed, based primarily on the numbers of abortion complications treated in hospitals. Estimates of the number of induced abortions and the ratio of abortions to births for Peru, Brazil and Colombia indicate that for every 10 women giving birth, 3-4 in Colombia and Brazil and two in Peru terminate their pregnancies.