PIP: This retrospective study analyzes the sociodemographic and fertility characteristics of a sample of 5368 women undergoing abortion at a private clinic in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1985. Although induced abortion is a controversial phenomenon in Puerto Rico, there is as yet little knowledge of the characteristics of women who seek abortions. The 5358 study women ranged in age from 12-48 years and averaged 26. 63% were aged 20-29 years. 40% were single, 43% were currently married, 16% were divorced, and 1% were widows. Women who has never married were 23.7 years old on average and ever-married women were 27.8 years old on average. 46.7% were economically active, 28.1% were housewives, 22.7% were students, and 2.5% were unemployed. The women had had an average of 2.9 pregnancies each. 6 women had been pregnant 12-15 times including the current pregnancy. 50.7% of the women were in the 3rd or higher order pregnancy, 20.8% were in their 2nd pregnancy, and 28.5% were in their 1st pregnancy. Ever-married subjects had an average of 3.5 pregnancies vs. 2.0 for single subjects. The average numbers of pregnancies were 2.9 for both economically active and inactive women. 40.9% had abortions without ever having children, 45.1% had had 1 or 2 children, and 13.9% had had 3 children or more. 74.2% of the single women and 19.2% of the ever-married women had abortions before ever having children. The average numbers of living children were .46 for single women, 1.64 for ever-married women, 1.1 for economically active women, 1.24 for inactive women, and 1.17 for the entire sample. The average numbers of prior induced abortions were .45 for single women, .72 for ever-married women, .71 for economically active women, .53 for inactive women, and .61 for the entire sample. 63.1% were undergoing their 1st abortion, 22.6% had had 1 previous abortion, and 14.2% had had more than 1. 17 women had had 6 ore more previous abortions. 65.5% of the women had used contraception. 78.1% of the abortions were performed at 8 weeks gestation or earlier, and 90.7% were done in the 1st trimester. Complications occurred in 35 of the 5368 procedures (.7%). These findings, which are not necessarily representative of induced abortion in Puerto Rico, suggest that both single and ever-married women resort to abortion. Single women tend to terminate their 1st pregnancies while ever-married women terminate pregnancies exceeding their desired number of children.^ieng