Abortion which midwives usually worked were relatively safe. In addition, some commentators have written that, despite improved medical procedures, the period from the 1930s until legalization also saw more zealous enforcement of anti-abortion laws, and concomitantly an increasing control of abortion providers by organized crime. Soviet Russia (1919), Iceland (1935) and Sweden (1938) were among the first countries to legalize certain or all forms of abortion. In 1935 Nazi Germany, a law was passed permitting abortions for those deemed "hereditarily ill", while women considered of German stock were specifically prohibited from having abortions. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth
Abortion in Malta average, despite Malta being the only EU country which bans the procedure (the rate for Malta is between 3.6 and 4.7 per thousand women; the EU average is 4.4). Abortion in Malta The "de jure" legal status of abortion in Malta holds that the practice is illegal. Malta is the only country in the European Union to prohibit abortion entirely. However, abortions are "de facto" allowed to save the mother's life. The Criminal Code states: "(1) Whosoever, by any food, drink, medicine, or by violence, or by any other means whatsoever, shall cause the miscarriage of any woman with child,