Today, 76% of the world's population lives in countries where induced abortion is legal, at least for health reasons, and 39% reside in nations where abortion is available on request. The procedure is legal in almost all developed countries, and although most developing countries prohibit abortion, 67% of residents of developing countries live in countries where it is permitted at least for health reasons . The remaining 33% – more than a billion people, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the most strongly fundamentalist Islamic nations – have little or no access to legal induced abortion. Although many women around the world are unable to obtain legal abortion when they need it, the current world situation is markedly different from that which prevailed 50 years ago, when almost all nations banned abortion. The first definitive steps toward legalizing abortion were taken in Northern Europe in the 1930s and gained momentum in the years following World War II, when the socialist nations of Central and Eastern Europe (with the exception of Albania) adopted laws that they allowed abortions in the first trimester. either on the woman's request or on the basis of broadly interpreted social indications. Many other developed countries, including the United States, followed suit in the 1960s and 1970s. As of early 1986, induced abortions could be obtained legally for health reasons in North America and all European countries except Belgium, Ireland, and Malta. Although some restrictions apply to the provision of abortion in many of these nations, especially in the second trimester, almost all women who wish can legally have an abortion in the first trimester. Therefore, the law ... middle of paper ... where out-of-hospital abortions are permitted, a growing percentage are performed in clinics or doctors' offices. In West Germany, for example, the percentage of abortions performed outside of hospitals increased from 15 percent in 1977 to 57 percent in 1984. Even where hospital abortions are mandatory, there has been an almost universal trend toward performing of hospital abortions as outpatient procedures. . In Sweden, the rate of outpatient abortions increased from 16% in 1971 to 83% in 1983. Hungary is the only European nation that requires all abortion patients to stay in hospital overnight; 82% only stay one night. In western Germany, 19% of abortions performed in 19984 resulted in a hospital stay of four days or more, and the average length of stay among women who had an aspiration curettage abortion was four days..