How do you get an abortion?
If you are considering an abortion, you can contact your doctor, who can refer you to a gynecology department in a hospital or to a specialist in gynecology.
You can also apply to your region for an abortion, but the most common is to turn to your doctor or another practitioner you trust. You can also contact a practicing specialist at a private hospital or clinic directly.
You are therefore allowed to go to a doctor other than your own general practitioner if it is a problem to use him or her.
At the doctor´s, you must fill out a request for an abortion.
The doctor will guide you
Before you complete the request for an abortion, the doctor will inform you about where and how the abortion will take place and about the consequences and risks of the procedure. During the interview, you can ask questions if there is anything you have doubts about or fear about the abortion procedure.
The doctor will also tell you where you can get guidance on the support options if you are considering keeping the child. You can find out more if you contact your region. If you live in Copenhagen or Frederiksberg, it is the municipality that provides guidance on the support options.
Before the doctor sends your request for an abortion to the hospital or the specialist, you must sign that you have been guided about the procedure and about support interviews, and that your doctor has informed you where you can go for guidance on support if you consider keeping the child.
You will also be informed that you can regret your decision to have an abortion until the last minute before you receive the medication that initiates the abortion.
Preliminary study
The doctor will then carry out a preliminary examination on you. That is, you will be examined for chlamydia and you will have an abdominal examination (gynecological examination) to determine how far along you are in the pregnancy.
Finally, you and the doctor must jointly fill out and sign an abortion request. The doctor sends this, together with a referral, to the hospital or clinic where the abortion is to be carried out.
If this is the first time you have had an abdominal examination done, you can read a little more about the examination here.
You will be summoned
You must then wait to be summoned by the hospital or clinic for the abortion.
You will receive a written invitation when a time has been found for you. If there is a short time until the abortion limit of 12 weeks, the doctor will call to make sure you have an appointment before then.
The abortion can be performed in a hospital or at a practicing specialist.
Choice of abortion method
There are two methods of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. Surgical and medical.
Surgical abortion takes place by having the contents of the uterus sucked out through a tube inserted through the cervix under full anesthesia or with an anesthetic on the cervix. A medical abortion takes place when you take some medicine that initiates the abortion. Both the surgical and the medical abortion can take place, so you can go home the same day after the procedure.
Talk to your doctor about which method is best for you and which you are most comfortable with. The doctor will often recommend medically induced abortion until week 9, but if you are unsure which abortion method you feel most comfortable choosing, the doctor will write it on the referral.
Read more here about medical abortion and about surgical abortion.
Exceptions
The right to abortion applies to all women until the first 12 weeks of pregnancy have passed.
However, slightly different rules apply if you are either longer than 12 weeks into your pregnancy or under 18 years of age.
Read here: