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 Germany Abortion in Germany Abortion in Germany is permitted in the first trimester upon condition of mandatory counseling, and is also permitted later in pregnancy in cases of medical necessity. In both cases, a waiting period of three days is required. The counseling, called ' ("pregnancy-conflict counseling"), must take place at a state-approved centre, which afterwards gives the applicant a ' ("certificate of counseling"). , the abortion rate was 6.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. Legalization of abortion was first widely discussed in Germany during the early 20th century. When Germany became a country in 1871, section 218 of