Abortions on the rise

One in three women over the age of 45 in Central Norway has had one or more abortions and national numbers are up around the country for the past two years. The age group 21-24 has had the greatest increase according to a survey carried out by Norfakta for Trondheim newspaper Adresseavisen.
Nils Eriksson, director of medicine at St. Olav’s Hospital, found the statistics surprising but not worrying.

"We are not seeing women using abortion as a form of birth control, that happens rarely. The reasons vary according to age group. The youngest feel they are too young (to have children), the eldest feel too old and those in the middle perhaps feel that a new child would come to soon after those they have," Eriksson said.

Sexologist Vigdis Moen at the Institute for Sexology believes that a misunderstanding about how birth control pills work can be one of the explanations for some unwanted pregnancies.

"Many believe that if one has used the pill for a while that it will take a long time before one can become pregnant after they stop using it. This is not correct," Moen said.

Aftenposten English Web Desk
Nina Berglund/NTB