Norway: Abortion and immigration status

This study analysed the frequency of termination of pregnancy (TOP) and associated risk factors according to immigration status.

It was a population-based registry study linking hospital data with information from the Central Population Registry of Norway, set in Oslo, Norway. The population was all women aged 15-49 years undergoing TOP and resident in Oslo, Norway from 1 January 2000 to 31 July 2003.

The authors calculated TOP rates per 1000 women/year. The association of socio-economic variables such as maternal age, marital status, number of children and education level within the study groups were estimated as odds ratios and using logistic regression. The main outcome measure was termination of pregnancy.

The results found that refugees (30.2, 95% CI = 28.5-31.8) and labour migrants (19.9, 95% CI = 18.7-21.3) had significantly higher TOP rates than nonmigrants (16.7, 95% CI = 16.3-17.1). Except in women less than 25 years, labour migrants had higher TOP rates than nonmigrants. Refugees had the highest rates in all age groups. Being unmarried was associated with a substantially increased risk of TOP among the nonmigrants; such effect was not observed among labour migrants and refugees. Two or more children were associated with increased risk among nonmigrants and refugees compared with four or more among the labour migrants. Generally, higher education showed a protective effect that was most pronounced among nonmigrants. Compared with nonmigrants, adjusted risk of TOP was 1.37 (95% CI = 1.25-1.50) for labour migrants and 1.94 (95% CI = 1.79-2.11) for refugees.

The authors concluded that public health efforts to increase the use of contraceptives among refugees and labour migrants above 25 years should be encouraged.

Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Email

Termination of pregnancy according to immigration status: a population-based registry linkage study. Vangen S, Eskild A, Forsen L. BJOG. 2008 Sep;115(10):1309-15.