Female sterilizations in the United States, 1987.

A study by the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception and the Centers for Disease Control estimated that 640,000 tubal sterilizations were performed in the United States during 1987. The majority of these were inpatient procedures (66 percent) performed in civilian or military hospitals. Hospitals were also the site for the largest share of the 215,000 outpatient procedures. Overall, 33 percent of sterilizations were laparoscopies: 10 percent of the inpatient sterilizations and 79 percent of outpatient procedures. The region with the largest number of sterilizations was the South, which also had the smallest proportion done on an outpatient basis.