Finland’s multifaceted approach to preventing teenage abortions has proven highly effective, with a 66 percent reduction reported between 2000 and 2023. This large drop, owing to free contraception and obligatory sex education, serves as a model for public health programs.
The impact of free contraception
Finland’s choice to provide free contraception to teens has been game-changing. Mika Gissler, a research professor at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL), emphasized the importance of early access to contraception in this beneficial trend. “We can assume that sexual education plays a significant role,” Gissler told Reuters, highlighting the value of both instruction and accessibility.
Beginning in the 2000s, Finland made morning-after medicines available without a prescription to everyone aged 15 and up. This measure was part of a larger campaign to combat the increased number of adolescent abortions that occurred during the 1990s. Finland created the groundwork for a continuous fall in teen abortion rates by ensuring that adolescents have the ability to avoid undesired pregnancies.
Comprehensive sexual education
In addition to providing free contraception, Finland made sexual education obligatory in all schools. This effort ensures that young people are knowledgeable about their sexual health and the options available to them. The integration of education and access has been critical. According to THL statistics, adolescent abortions have decreased dramatically, from 2,144 in 2000 to 722 in 2023 among those aged 19 and younger. The reduction was considerably more dramatic among those under the age of 18, accounting for 78 percent.
Legislative support and wider trends
Finland liberalized its abortion regulations in 2022, allowing abortions on request throughout the first 12 weeks of pregnancy without providing a justification. This legal amendment, which takes effect in September 2023, illustrates Finland’s progressive approach to reproductive rights, particularly in a global environment where such rights are under attack in many places.
While it is too early to know the entire impact of this legal reform on abortion rates, the move is intended to strengthen women’s reproductive health and rights. THL will continue to monitor and report on these patterns as new data become available.
A broader perspective
Although the decline in adolescent abortions is remarkable, the decrease in abortions among Finnish women of all ages is less spectacular. Over the last two decades, the overall number of abortions has stayed largely steady, with a little 2.9 percent increase from 2022 to 2023. This shows that, while youth gain from improved education and access to contraception, further interventions may be required to assist older age groups.
Finland’s accomplishment in lowering adolescent abortions by 66 percent demonstrates the efficacy of a complete program that includes free contraception and doesn’t shy away from mandatory sex education. As the government adjusts its policies and monitors their effectiveness, it provides a valuable model for other countries looking to enhance reproductive health and minimize unwanted pregnancies.
Or you just make abortion illegal and you have reduced it to 0. Easy /s
Exactly… all those sluts should just keep their legs closed and practice abstinence, deny one of their primal urges and get back in the kitchen and bake me a pie.
I’m happy some countries are still showing that stuff like this is possible. Good for everyone.
MAGoo logic.
Children of 15 or 16 should show maturity and learn to control their desires. Grown men like Trump can’t be expected to show any kind of restraint.
I’d call it Burqa logic. As there you see the exact lo.gic at work.
Mandatory burqas is what America is missing.
An Apple pie?
Wow, a result that is wrong for some reason. I don’t know that reason but as soon as I turn on Fox News they will tell me what to think. Then I’m gonna be mad as shit at this!!!
Right now not sure how to feel though.
“Finland doesn’t exist”
-Fox news
^the day will come^
Right now not sure how to feel though
Easy! A conservative’s default feelings are confusion and anger; the rest just sort of flows from there
It would be confusion if they tried to understand. Instead, it’s actually defiance at the expectation of empathy/understanding. They probably are confused that other people have empathy though so I guess you’re right…
Hmm, I wonder what do the crowd that’s constantly preaching about the sanctity of life ever since conception think about this. Wait, what? They don’t like condoms either? Well, ok…
They don’t just dislike contraceptives, they also don’t want teens to get sex education in schools.
Yep, it’s a control thing.
If you can command a population to sacrifice women to childbirth in waves, and they don’t revolt, what else can you command them to do?
It’s not just about control, it’s about increasing their total power. Population size matters, every extra wage slave is another lifetime of productivity to siphon from.
The reality is that they don’t give a shit about fetuses. All they care about is the fact that someone is having sex with someone else and it isn’t them. They are incucks to people they don’t even know. It eats them from the inside that all the woke people and the immigrants and young people and athiests are out there having sex and enjoying themselves and they will do anything that they can to punish the woman involved.
I thought it was normal that eg. Schools provided contraceptives? Is this not the case around the world?
No. Some societies demonize condoms. Some schools have chastity clubs. Even in relatively liberal societies, the pill and day-after pills are very often available on prescription only. Even in relatively liberal societies, hospitals may just not perform abortions for religious reasons.
What’s a chastity club? Sounds like a medieval torture method…
A chastity club is the name the Hulk came up with during a dry spell for his
What?
his… club.
Happy cake day!
Thanks!
But where will they get the poor uneducated population that they need to buoy support for their extreme right wing parties?
Stories like this only serve to reinforce the mistaken idea that conservatives actually care about abortions. They don’t. Conservatives care about power and control, and abortion is just a proxy for the kind of individual freedom which threatens them.
This needs to be shared in North America
Bruh in that photo that cindom coukd fit an apple! What is finland eating???
It’s a female condom. They are relatively rare.
In the UK (at least from what I know from sex education), they’re actually pretty popular. They’re a good method of contraception.
Finland’s multifaceted approach to preventing teenage abortions has proven highly effective, with a 66 percent reduction reported between 2000 and 2023.
Although the decline in adolescent abortions is remarkable, the decrease in abortions among Finnish women of all ages is less spectacular. Over the last two decades, the overall number of abortions has stayed largely steady, with a little 2.9 percent increase from 2022 to 2023. This shows that, while youth gain from improved education and access to contraception, further interventions may be required to assist older age groups.
I am confused by this assessment. The people who were positively impacted in the early 2000s are now the older age group. Someone who was 15-20 years old in 2000 is 39-44 years old in 2024. And womens chance to get pregnant is declining steeply in their 40s.
So this implies that there is a loss of awareness and care in the same people as they grow older.
From thr headline, I would have guessed n=3
