The country that has the "abortion day" and records more terminations than births

Greenland has extraordinary peculiarities. It is considered the largest island in the world because of its territorial extension, although it has only 56,295 inhabitants, a little more than the city of Alta Gracia. About 80% of its surface is covered with ice and its citizens have no property rights on the land. However, today 's figure is that of national statistics on the number of abortions performed in this country.

Official information indicates that since 2013 there have been 700 births and 800 abortions per year. 30 out of 1000 women chose to discontinue their pregnancy.

Abortion day

Students from Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, have the opportunity to visit the badual health clinic on Wednesday, known as abortion dayTuri Hermannsdottir, a PhD student doing research on this topic at Roskilde University, told BBC World. "In Greenland, the debate on the termination of pregnancy is neither taboo nor morally condemned," he said.

What is behind unwanted pregnancies

The BBC met with Stine Brenoe, a gynecology nurse who works on the island and has conducted an investigation on the subject. A survey found that while about 50% of women reported having knowledge of contraceptive methods, 85% did not use them or did not use them correctly.

The professional also found links to these drinking situations, with some couples deciding not to use protection after drinking too much.

Hermannsdottir, on the other hand, risked three reasons why some women do not use contraceptives in Greenland.

• They want to be a mother.
• They suffer episodes of violence within their family and consume alcohol. They do not take the pill regularly.
• Many men refuse to use condoms.

Lack of bad education

One of the young women interviewed by the BBC acknowledged that she had performed five abortions in two years, which, she says, is not strange in her environment. "My mother never spoke to me about my badual health, I learned things about school, but mostly through my friends," he admits.

Free abortion for all

Some people think that Greenland should begin charging each abortion to reduce the number of procedures performed per year. The argument loses its strength when rates are compared to those in Denmark, where it is also free to legally terminate the pregnancy, but only 12 out of 1,000 women choose to do so.

Johanne Sundby, a Norwegian doctor and teacher who worked in Greenland with women and children victims of violence and abuse, told the BBC that this "would lead to an unregulated market with unsafe and cheap abortions".

Project doll

According to national statistics, young people in Greenland start having bad at 14 or 15 years old. Alerted to this situation, the government created the "Project Doll", which aims to raise public awareness of the consequences of becoming a father or mother at an early age, and to report on the prevention of badually transmitted diseases.

The program has the participation of schools, where students receive a "baby robot" that must be treated as it was real, so that they take on the dimension of responsibilities to raise a child.

Project doll. (BBC World).