(Bloomberg) -- Denmark will ease its abortion legislation after a broad majority of lawmakers agreed to allow women to terminate pregnancies at a later stage.

Going forward, an abortion can be had without reason in the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, up from a current 12-week limit, the health ministry said on Friday. A parliament majority also agreed to let women as young as 15 get an abortion without parental consent.

The new rules mean the Nordic nation, which legalized abortion in 1973, will now have one of the longest free abortion periods in Europe — having previously been one of the laggards.

The change stems from a recommendation last year by the Danish ethics council to expand the abortion limit so that women have more time to reflect and act on scans made in the first trimester. The council also said that experience from other countries showed that extended rights were unlikely to lead to significantly more or later abortions, nor would terminations be used as a sex-selection method.

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