By Dave Andrusko

Pro-lifers in Canada have for decades bemoaned the quality of the official numbers estimating the number of abortions in their country. That unhappy history is being repeated after the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHC) on Tuesday reported numbers for 2008 roughly half the number reported for 2006.

Since that is an impossibility for all practical purposes, what is the explanation? To begin with, according to Lifesitenews.com, the dramatic undercount is nothing new.

In 2009, for example, the numbers also appeared to show a decline from 2002 to 2006--from 105,535 to 91,377. But in 2006 there were no data for abortions in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Manitoba. "Hospital and clinic abortions for Prince Edward Island are not reported at all for any of these years," according to Thaddeus M. Baklinski.

If anything it's worse this time around. Ostensibly, there were 44,416 abortions in 2008, down from the reported 2006 figure of 91,377.

But "this total leaves out abortions committed at private facilities," according to Lifesite's Patrick Craine. "These are left as 'unknown' because facilities in six out of the 13 provinces/territories failed to report." Add those other seven in and the 44,416 suddenly becomes 94, 010 abortions.

These numbers are also less than the real number for the same reason the abortion figures provided by the (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control are always under: many abortionists don't voluntarily report.

"After adding up the available numbers from private facilities, the number is 97,009-97,017," Craine writes.