PPFA Abortion Conference, 1955
Abortion in the Scandinavian Countries
Norway Denmark Sweden

"The sooner the public is acquainted with the basis facts and implications of abortion in the United States, the better. Only through widespread knowledge of the situation can responsible public action be taken to correct the conditions that underlie the high incidence of illegal abortions in this country."
Frederick H. Falls, MD
Past President, Am. Assoc. for Maternal and Infant Health
Past President, AMA Section of Ob/Gyn

Norway
presentation by Bard Brekke, MD
Psychiatrist, Maternal Health Center, Oslo, Norway

At the time of the conference, Norway's population was roughly 3.4 million. Infant mortality was 25/1000 live births. Illegitimacy accounted for 4% of all births.

Norway was socially and religiously "very homogeneous," with 97% of the population belonging to the Lutheran State Church. The religious minorities were Roman Catholics (fewer than 5,000) and Jews (roughly 800). Outside the capital city of Oslo, with a population of 400,000, people mostly lived in remote areas. Communication and transportation were often achieved through these areas only with difficulty. Because of this, public health efforts were largely decentralized.

Noway's abortion law at the time had been in place since 1902. This Penal Code allowed for up to two years imprisonment for self-induced abortion, and up to six years prison for abortionists and their accomplices. However, abortions done by physicians on medical grounds were permitted, dating back to a 1899 declaration by the Department of Justice.

During the 1930's, the Labour Party began efforts to loosen the abortion laws. "As early as 1930 the Norwegia Medical Association ... presented a proposed bill that was very radical indeed." Opponents rallied and countered with their own proposal, that abortion be permitted for medical and psyciatric indictions (including the "'worn out' housewife"), "humanitarian" cases (rape, incest, or unmarried girls under age 16), and eugenic (with mandatory sterilization as a condition of the abortion if the parents were considered of inferior genetic disposition).

The two factions battled it out, unable to hammer out an agreement. Aside from the "racially" indicated abortions permitted during the German occupation, the 1902 law remained in force, and was still on the books as of the 1955 conference.

The interpretation of the law was fairly loose, with physicians performing abortions according to their own judgment. Because of the possibility of prosecution, doctors gave serious consideration to each case, rather than simply aborting women upon request. (In other words, "the woman and her doctor" image generated by abortion advocacy organizations in the US actually did exist in Norway at one time.)

Despite the availablity of legal abortion for women in difficult cirumstances, illegal abortion persisted. Attorney Thor Oug "analyzed the court records of 225 women who were known to have committed self-induced abortion, the records from the years 1947-52. The study shows that of the 225 women, only 8 were actually sentenced to serve prison terms; 50 of the women, however, were given suspended sentences." This practice stands in stark contrast to the United States, where although there were penalties on the books for aborting women, none were ever prosecuted.

Oug further noted that "abortionists were given fairly heavy sentences," with 8 of 77 sentenced to more than one year.

Brekke noted, "Norway has no organized public health program to counteract and control illegal abortions." However, "social work for women applying for legal abortion has been taken up ... recently..." He described the one program in place at the time, under the auspices of the Labour Party's Women's Organization and funded with city tax funds. "The abortion service was originally staffed by a social worker only, but since 1952 there has also been a part-time psychiatrist, myself. .... [T]he social work carried out by this agency is most impressive and well worth studying by anybody interested in problems connected with abortion."

Here I will quote Brekke at length:

"I would like to add a few words about our basic philosophy. We believe that when a woman wants an abortion, there must be something wrong either with herself or with her life situation or both, and frequently she represents not an individual social and medical problem only, but that of a whole family in need of some social or sociomedical treatment. Accordingly the woman's whole situation must be analyzed with the aim of arriving at a treatment plan based on the collabortion of the woman and her family. Sometimes, unfortunately, and abortion must be a part of such a total treatment plan, and then we recommend it. We always attempt, however, with all the means we have at our disposal, to correct the underlying situation and to help the woman and her family without resorting to an abortion, whenever this is possible. And if an abortion is found necessary, we feel it should hav a therapeutic function as part of a larger social, psychiatric, and medical treatment plan. Very rarely is an abortion as such adequate therapy; as an isolated measure it is rarely of more than temporary and symptomatic help."

Here Brekke concluded his presentation, and the discussion afterward revealed that most abortions were done before the 12th week. Christopher Tietze questioned Brekke's low reported abortion rate's accuracy, but Brekke stood by his guns, indicating that with the standard of living and the support available, a low abortion rate (3 to 5%) should be expected and not come as a surprise.