The Faroe Islands, a remote territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has voted to end its decades-old regulations on abortion.
The autonomous island’s parliament voted on Thursday to allow abortions on the island from conception to 12 weeks of gestation, having previously outlawed most cases of elective procedures.
“This change finally affirms women’s autonomy over their own bodies in the Faroe Islands,” Ingilín Didriksen Strøm, a member of parliament who tabled the proposal, told the BBC following the change.
Strøm called the vote a “historic day in the Faroe Islands.”
She added, “It guarantees access to safe healthcare, and it also protects our freedom to make decisions about our own lives without fear, without stigma, and without criminalization.”
Before Thursday’s vote, abortion was outlawed on the Faroe Islands unless it met specific criteria, such as a health risk or severe abnormalities.
These regulations were introduced by the Kingdom of Denmark in 1956 and maintained on the island even after its parent nation liberalized its own abortion policy in 1973. The country passed legislation that allowed abortion up to 12 weeks, and this year expanded that window to 18 weeks.
The number of European nations with outright bans on elective abortion is dwindling and mostly confined to microstates. Prince Albert II of Monaco announced in an interview last month that he would veto any attempt by his national legislature to legalize abortion, citing the society’s deeply Catholic identity.
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“The current framework respects who we are, in light of the role that the Catholic religion occupies in our country, while still ensuring safe and more humane support,” he told the Monaco-Matin.
The National Council of Monaco had passed a bill in March seeking to legalize elective abortion up to 12 weeks.