Abortion in Denmark
Abortion in Denmark was fully legalized on 1 October 1973,[1] allowing the procedure to be done on-demand if a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded its twelfth week.[1] The patient must be over the age of 18 to decide on an abortion alone; parental consent is required if she is a minor.[1] An abortion can be performed after 12 weeks if the woman's life or health are in danger. A woman may also be granted an authorization to abort after 12 weeks if certain circumstances are proved to be present (such as poor socioeconomic condition of the woman; risk of birth defects to fetus; the pregnancy being the result of rape; mental health risk to mother).[2]
Abortion was first allowed in 1939 by application; if the doctors deemed the pregnancy fell into one of three categories (harmful or fatal to the mother, high risk for birth defects, or a pregnancy borne out of rape), a woman could legally have her pregnancy terminated.[3] A little more than half of the applications received in 1954 and 1955 were accepted; the low acceptance rates were linked to a surge of illegal abortions performed outside the confines of hospitals.[3] An addendum to the 1939 law was passed on 24 March 1970,[1] allowing on-demand abortions only for women under the age of 18 who were deemed "ill-equipped for motherhood," and women over the age of 38.[3]
The 1973 law is still valid today and nullifies the 1970 law.[1]
As of 2013, the abortion rate was 12.1 abortions per 1000 women aged 15-49 years.[4]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Lovitidende for Kongeriget Danmark, Part A, 6 July 1973, No. 32, pp. 993-995
- ↑ http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/population/abortion/Denmark.abo.htm
- 1 2 3 The rocky road to abortion on demand
- ↑ Heino, Anna; Gissler, Mika (26 March 2015). "Induced abortions in the Nordic countries 2013". THL. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
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