Trends over 50 years with liberal abortion laws in the Nordic countries.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2024
2024
Historique:
received:
02
01
2024
accepted:
04
06
2024
medline:
10
7
2024
pubmed:
10
7
2024
entrez:
10
7
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
During the 1970s the Nordic countries liberalized their abortion laws. We assessed epidemiological trends for induced abortion on all Nordic countries, considered legal similarities and diversities, effects of new medical innovations and changes in practical and legal provisions during the subsequent years. New legislation strengthened surveillance of induced abortion in all countries and mandated hospitals that performed abortions to report to national abortion registers. Published data from the Nordic abortion registers were considered and new comparative analyses done. The data cover complete national populations. After an increase in abortion rates during the first years following liberalization, the general abortion rates stabilized and even decreased in all Nordic countries, especially for women under 25 years. From the mid-1980s higher awareness about pregnancy termination led women to present at an earlier gestational age, which was accelerated by the introduction of medical abortion some years later. Most terminations (80-86%) are now done before the 9th gestational week in all countries, primarily by medical rather than surgical means. Introduction of routine ultrasound screening in pregnancy during the late 1980s, increased the number of 2nd trimester abortions on fetal anomaly indications without an overall increase in the proportion of 2nd relative to 1st trimester abortions. Further refinement of ultrasound screening and non-invasive prenatal diagnostic methods led to a slight increase in the proportion of early 2nd trimester abortions after the year 2000. Country-specific differences in abortion rates have remained stable over the 50 years of liberalized abortion laws.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
During the 1970s the Nordic countries liberalized their abortion laws.
OBJECTIVE
OBJECTIVE
We assessed epidemiological trends for induced abortion on all Nordic countries, considered legal similarities and diversities, effects of new medical innovations and changes in practical and legal provisions during the subsequent years.
METHODS
METHODS
New legislation strengthened surveillance of induced abortion in all countries and mandated hospitals that performed abortions to report to national abortion registers. Published data from the Nordic abortion registers were considered and new comparative analyses done. The data cover complete national populations.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
After an increase in abortion rates during the first years following liberalization, the general abortion rates stabilized and even decreased in all Nordic countries, especially for women under 25 years. From the mid-1980s higher awareness about pregnancy termination led women to present at an earlier gestational age, which was accelerated by the introduction of medical abortion some years later. Most terminations (80-86%) are now done before the 9th gestational week in all countries, primarily by medical rather than surgical means. Introduction of routine ultrasound screening in pregnancy during the late 1980s, increased the number of 2nd trimester abortions on fetal anomaly indications without an overall increase in the proportion of 2nd relative to 1st trimester abortions. Further refinement of ultrasound screening and non-invasive prenatal diagnostic methods led to a slight increase in the proportion of early 2nd trimester abortions after the year 2000. Country-specific differences in abortion rates have remained stable over the 50 years of liberalized abortion laws.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38985688
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305701
pii: PONE-D-23-43920
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0305701Informations de copyright
Copyright: © 2024 Skjeldestad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.