The government says on Wednesday morning that they will appoint a public committee to review the abortion law. Minister of Health and Care Services Ingvild Kjerkol (Labor Party) chaired the press conference. with her were health policy spokespersons Hans Inge Myrvold (Sp) and Cecilie Terese Myrseth (Labor). – For many women, terminating a pregnancy is a difficult choice. They must therefore receive good professional support before and after such a choice. Such important issues can not be the subject of political horse-trading, the Minister of Health stated. Possible self-determined abortion until week 18 In Norway, pregnant women decide whether they want to have an abortion until week 12. If they want an abortion later – up to week 18. – the abortion must be approved by an abortion board. In line with the Hurdal platform, a committee will be appointed to look at the provisions of the Abortion Act, the follow-up of women who have abortions and alternatives to the current abortion committees, the Government itself writes on its website. The government says on Wednesday that they will give the committee a mandate to investigate the possibility of self-determined abortion up to the 18th week. This means that women themselves can choose to have an abortion until the 18th week. – For us in the government, it is important to have a close and good cooperation, also on issues where the two governing parties do not share all views. We are also concerned about this in this work, says Kjerkol. The Abortion Act Norwegian women can decide for themselves whether they want to have an abortion during the first twelve weeks of a pregnancy. After this, the woman must apply for an abortion, and appear before a board that decides this. An abortion board consists of two doctors. One of them must be employed by the department that performs abortions at the hospital. There are several factors that allow a woman to have an abortion approved after the twelfth week. Among other things, if the pregnancy or the care of the child leads to an unreasonable burden for the child, it puts the woman in a difficult life situation, there is a great risk that the child can get serious illness, if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, the pregnant woman is seriously ill. or severely mentally retarded. If the pregnancy is to be terminated after week 18, there must be “particularly compelling” reasons, for example that the mother’s life is in danger or that the fetus will not be able to survive. The leader of the committee is ready Kari Sønderland, lawyer and former head of operations at the Ministry of Health and Care Services, will lead the committee. – I am confident that she will lead the committee in a safe and good way, Kjerkol said. The rest of the committee will be ready in a short time, the Minister of Health added. It is planned that the committee will otherwise have expertise in, among other things, medical ethics, diagnostics, as well as follow-up and treatment of pregnant women. The committee must also have knowledge about disease and developmental abnormalities in the fetus, the Government writes in a press release.
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Committees will review the abortion law – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
