COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s government said Friday it is relaxing its restrictions on abortion for the first time in 50 years to make it legal for women to terminate pregnancies up to the 18th week from the previous 12th week.

Officials said the law will also be changed to allow girls between 15 and 17 years old to have an abortion without parental consent.

Marie Bjerre, the gender equality minister, said Denmark is strengthening women’s rights while they are being rolled back in other parts of the world.

“It is about the individual woman’s freedom, about the right to decide over her own body and her own life. It is a historic day for women’s equality,” she said.

Free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. The limit was set at up to 12 weeks because “at that time all abortions were performed surgically, and at that time an abortion after the 12th week entailed a greater risk of complications,” the health ministry said.