In regards to Iceland and Down’s Syndrome my assumption was that perhaps it was a cultural rather than state issue - the government doesn’t mandate abortions for it, doesn’t even mandate testing for it in the first place. So why are Icelanders choosing to have abortions after positive tests?
What little googling I did showed that DS is not, in fact, nearly eradicated in Iceland - actually it’s only 10% less than in other European countries. Iceland has a higher rate of abortion in general than other Nordic countries, a fact attributed in part to limited sex education there as well as less effective use of contraception.
Prenatal testing for DS exists nearly everywhere in first world countries, but Icelandic women abort after a positive test nearly 100% of the time - why? Some sources say it’s the result of heavy handed genetic counseling, if that’s true easy to assume there’s a state influence at play. So yeah, still not sure myself without further reading.
(For the record? In the US a positive test for DS results in abortion 67% of the time. The rates are much higher in European nations.)
