Copenhagen, Dec 4, 2025 (AFP)
The parliament of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory of Denmark, voted Thursday to legalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, liberalising some of Europe's strictest laws on the procedure.
The reform, which passed by a vote of 17 to 16, ends regulations restricting abortion to extreme cases such as danger to a woman's life in the north Atlantic archipelago of some 56,000 people.
It ends a legal imbalance where Faroese women had to travel to Denmark to get an abortion, where the procedure is legal until up to 18 weeks.
The Fritt Val (Free Choice) group, which had been advocating for a change in the law, hailed the move in a post on Instagram.
"The Logting (Faroese unicameral parliament)... has just granted Faroese women the right to decide over their own bodies," the association said.
Earlier this year, mainland Denmark extended the legal abortion limit from 12 to 18 weeks.
Prior to Thursday's vote, the restrictions made the Faroe Islands something of an outlier in Europe.
Only Andorra and the Vatican currently ban abortion in all cases, while Malta in 2023 slightly liberalised its draconian rules, allowing for the procedure when the mother's life was in danger or the unborn baby was unlikely to survive.
Poland significantly rolled back abortion rights that year.

Sumber : AFP