About 5,000 abortion seekers come to Skåne University Hospital in Malmö each year and who P4 Malmöhus reported are a few of these from Denmark.
According to Roxana Leyton, midwife responsible for abortion at the hospital, the number of Danish women applying to Skåne has been at roughly the same level since 2008. At that time, a change in the law was made that enables foreign women to have an abortion in Sweden. This at a cost price of up to SEK 19,000.
– You can’t say that there is any abortion tourism, says Roxana Leyton and explains that the foreign patients are mainly women who temporarily live or work in Sweden.
Abortion laws can change
In Denmark, the limit for free abortion has been twelve weeks since 1973, i.e. now for 50 years. If you want to have an abortion after week twelve, you must apply for permission.
In 2022, 863 women in Denmark applied for an abortion after week twelve, of which 54 were refused, reports Danmarks Radio.
At the end of September, Denmark’s ethical council came up with new recommendations regarding abortion. A majority of the council recommends that the limit for free abortion be raised, either to 18 weeks, as is the case in Sweden, or to 15 weeks. The council also believes that 15- to 17-year-olds should be able to have an abortion without parental approval.
The parties did not agree
The Folketing is divided on the issue and the topic has been debated during the year, with parties both advocating raising the limit for free abortion and those who want the current laws to continue to apply.
Several of the Danish parties have stated that they want to wait to take a position after the ethical council’s recommendations, which now say that the grass should be raised.
The justification for the new recommendation includes, among other things, that it increases the possibility of women’s self-determination and that, based on experience from other countries, there is evidence that a higher limit does not lead to significantly more abortions.