More women choose abortion after chromosomal abnormalities have been detected
Fewer children with chromosomal abnormalities are being born now than before.
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More women than before are choosing elective abortions after chromosomal abnormalities are detected.
The increase is 16 percentage points, from 61 per cent in 2021 to 77 per cent in 2022, according to figures from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH).
Older pregnant women
The proportion of pregnancies where one or more chromosomal abnormalities have been detected has also steadily increased over the last ten years. The numbers have risen in line with the average age of pregnant women.
"Very low and high ages are known risk factors for having children with chromosomal abnormalities. This pattern of increasing age among expectant mothers and a growing proportion of pregnancies diagnosed with chromosomal deviations continued in 2022," Liv Cecilie Vestrheim Thomsen says. She is a senior physician at the Health Registry Research and Development Department at NIPH.
According to figures from NIPH, 88 children with chromosomal abnormalities were born in 2021. Last year, the number was 64.
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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
