Abortion legislation
Legal conditions
- Written consent by the woman
- Health personnel are obliged to offer counselling on contraception but the women can deny it.
Specific conditions for minors
- Parent’s (or guardian’s) consent required for minors under 16
Practical conditions
Mandatory pre-abortion examinations
- None
Involved healthcare professionals
- Surgical abortion: obstetrician/gynaecologist (OB/GYN) or another physician
- Medical abortion: OB/GYN, another physician, nurse or midwife under physician supervision
Abortion statistics
Overall number of induced abortions
Source: https://thl.fi/en/web/thlfi-en/statistics-and-data/statistics-by-topic/sexual-and-reproductive-health/abortions/induced-abortions-in-the-nordic-countries
Abortion ratio per 1.000 live births: 213 (2019)
Source: https://thl.fi/en/web/thlfi-en/statistics-and-data/statistics-by-topic/sexual-and-reproductive-health/abortions/induced-abortions-in-the-nordic-countries
Abortions performed “on request”: 95.4% (2018)
Source: http://statistikk.fhi.no/mfr/
Overall number of induced abortions vs. medical abortions
Source: https://thl.fi/en/web/thlfi-en/statistics-and-data/statistics-by-topic/sexual-and-reproductive-health/abortions/induced-abortions-in-the-nordic-countries
Induced abortions per gestational age
Unfortunately we have no data for this country.Source: https://thl.fi/en/web/thlfi-en/statistics-and-data/statistics-by-topic/sexual-and-reproductive-health/abortions/induced-abortions-in-the-nordic-countries
Place of abortion
Source: Abortion law (https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1975-06-13-50)
Characteristics of women having induced abortion
Among women who had induced abortion:
- 36% had at least 1 previous induced abortion in 2007-2011
- 50% had at least 1 child in 2007-2010.
Fertility and contraception
Women age at first birth
- 29.5 years of age (2018)
Overall contraception data
- Contraceptive prevalence rate was 136/1,000 women aged 15-39 in 2016 (excluding intra-uterine device (IUD) and contraceptive vaginal ring); oral contraceptive prevalence rate was 118/1,000.
Pre-abortion contraception
- 19% of women who had abortion had a contraceptive method before abortion procedure (2007-2011).
Country-specific characteristics
A special thanks to our correspondents for contributing in data collection.
Please contact info@exelgyn.com if you have additional data or would like to comment information
Page last updated: 31 March 2023