[3] Medically, an abortion was lawful if a pregnancy threatened a woman's physical or mental health, if the fetus had a serious congenital defect, or if the woman was deemed incapable of caring for a child because of her age or mental disability.
[3] All Icelandic women who undergo abortions are required to receive counselling both prior to and following the procedure, including education about contraceptive use.
[3] A study published in 2003 found that over the period of 1976–1999, the abortion rate in Iceland rose by 133%, increasing from 9.4 abortions per 1000 women to 21.9 per 1000 women, with the highest regional rates in the Reykjavík area.
The authors noted that Iceland's abortion rate was higher than in any of the other Nordic countries, a trend which they attributed to the limited sex education, early initiation of sexual activity, and less effective use of contraception in Iceland.
There are reports that the high rate of pregnancy termination in response to positive results has led to the near-eradication of people with Down syndrome in Iceland.