The Danish government announced on Friday that it was loosening abortion restrictions for the first time in 50 years to make it legal for women to terminate pregnancies up to the 18th week from the previous 12th week and allowing girls aged 15 to 17 to have abortions without parental consent.
On Friday, the government announced it had reached an agreement with four other parties – the Socialist People’s Party, the Red–Green Alliance, the Danish Social Liberal Party and The Alternative – to raise the abortion limit from the current 12 weeks.
It is about the freedom of the individual woman, about the right to decide over her own body and her own life. It is a historic day for women’s equality, said Danish Minister for Digitalisation and Gender Equality Marie Bjerre.
The right to abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. The limit was set at up to 12 weeks as “at that time all abortions were performed surgically, and at that time an abortion after 12 weeks carried a greater risk of complications,” the Danish health ministry said.
After 50 years, it is time for abortion rules to move with the times, and we are now strengthening women’s right to self-determination, Danish Minister of the Interior and Health Sophie Lohde said.
She said neighbouring Sweden, which introduced an 18-week gestational age limit in 1996, has not seen a significant increase in the number or timing of abortions.
Marie Bjerre said the changes would also allow teenagers aged 15 to 17 to have an abortion without parental consent and replace five regional abortion counselling centres with a new national abortion board to avoid local differences.
She said that she hoped that “young women can find support from their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother. It is her body and her life.”
However, criticism of the new law has also come in. MP Mette Thiesen of the populist, anti-immigration party, which was not part of the deal, did not support the new law, describing it as follows: “It’s a terrible new law.” According to her, there was a very fine line between a woman’s right to her own body and the right to the life of a little life that is in the womb. Thiesen told Danish broadcaster Dr:
In week 18, we are talking about a small person with fingers and toes, which you can feel inside the womb.
The Danish Health Data Authority shows that the total number of abortions in Denmark has been stable in recent years. In 2022, 14,700 medical abortions were performed, up from 14,500 in 2017. The peak was in 1975, when 27,900 abortions were performed.
Abortion is deeply controversial in the United States, it is generally legal across Europe, but there are differing positions on the issue.
Earlier this year, France became the first country in the world to enshrine a woman’s right to abortion in its constitution. Meanwhile, Poland’s parliament held a long-awaited debate last month on liberalising the country’s restrictive laws, although many women terminate pregnancies at home using pills mailed from abroad. In Germany, however, abortion remains illegal except in special circumstances, including if a woman’s life is in danger or she has been the victim of rape, and consultation with a public authority is a prerequisite for terminating a pregnancy.
The change is expected to come into force on 1 June 2025.
