Despite medical and technological advances that have given us unprecedented insight into human development in the womb, an increasing number of European countries are becoming increasingly extreme on abortion.
At 18 weeks’ gestation, a baby can hiccup and yawn in the womb; by that point, the unborn child can also feel pain. Preemies have survived outside the womb at only 21 weeks. Here, for reference, this is what a baby in the womb looks like at 18 weeks:
Yet, in May, Denmark changed its abortion law for the first time since 1973, when abortion was legalized up until 12 weeks of pregnancy. The government – in agreement with the Socialist People’s Party, the Red-Green Alliance, the Danish Social Liberal Party, and The Alternative – raised the abortion limit to 18 weeks. At the same time, Denmark’s new abortion regime also permits 15- to 17-year-olds to obtain abortions without parental consent.
“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 Digitalization and Gender Equality Marie Bjerre. “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 Løhde added. The new regime will come into effect on June 1, 2025.
In August, the Norwegian government followed suit, announcing that it would also be raising its abortion limit from 12 weeks to 18 weeks. Despite the 12-week cutoff, women frequently request – and are granted – permission to have abortions later in pregnancy, and Norwegian Health Minister Jan Christian Vestre stated that the government’s proposal brings the law into “line with practice today. Almost no one is refused applications for abortion after the 12th week.”
Abortion, he added, is key to the Norwegian identity: “[W]omen’s right to self-determined abortion is a fundamental value in Norway.”
For reference, this is the procedure that Vestre is referring to as a “fundamental value”:
Though the Norwegian Institute of Public Health says the abortion rate has been “historically low for several years,” there was also 6.7% increase in abortions in 2023 over 2022, with 12,814 preborn babies killed in the womb – a number that will surely rise if abortions are permitted later in pregnancy.
The Norwegian government’s decision came in response to abortion activist lobbying, which resulted in a “special abortion council” commissioned by the government in 2023. The council recommended permitting abortion up until 18 weeks and later in some circumstances. Norway’s Council of Catholic Bishops responded in a strongly worded letter, addressed to the Ministry of Health and Care:
The law proposal cancels the fetus as a subject entitled to rights. The consideration of abortion has, in the strict sense of this word, a tragic dimension. In every case an accomplished abortion is an occasion for grief, a loss to the community. Only on this basis, such is our conviction, can our society rightly consider the welfare of all parties concerned in a way that is responsible and rational. The proposal to extend the term of free abortion by six weeks contributes to an erosion of legislation’s chief task: to protect the integrity of individual persons on the basis of a principle of justice, also when the individual person is powerless, without an ability to speak for her or himself. On these grounds we ask that the law proposal be rejected.
While the proposal must still pass a vote in Norway’s Parliament, the Stortinget, it appears that the votes have already been secured. According to the Associated Press: “So far some 80 lawmakers have said they will vote in favor of the new law. It was not yet clear when a vote would be held in Parliament.”
Not all parliamentarians support the change – the Center Party, which is part of the governing coalition, wants to keep the limit at 12 weeks – but the government does not anticipate any difficulty in passing the proposal.
Science is our idol – until it interferes with our sacrament. Then, we ignore it – and pretend that the babies yawning and sucking their thumbs in the womb do not feel pain and can be crushed and dismembered for our convenience. A European tragedy.
