The Swedish Green Party in the southern region of Skåne has proposed that taxpayers pay for subsidies for Polish women who travel to the country for abortions.
The Green party want Swedish taxpayers to help subsides abortions for Polish women after a Polish court struck down a provision in the law that allowed doctors to perform abortions of children with disabilities last month. Poland only allows abortion in cases of rape, incest, and danger to the mother’s life.
Mätta Ivarsson, group leader of the Green Party in Skåne, commented on her party’s new proposal, telling broadcaster SVT: “Poles should know that they are not alone in this fight. Polish women should also have the right to their own body.”
“After a long and stubborn struggle, Swedish women have had the right to their bodies protected by law. But that has not always been the case. It is not too long ago that the situation was reversed. In the 1960s, thousands of Swedish women travelled to Poland where abortion was then legal [under communism]. Now it’s time for us to give back,” she said.
Carl Johan Sonesson of the centre-right Moderates said that the proposal would depend on the cost and noted that there was already a “mutual healthcare agreement” in place with neighbouring Denmark.
The proposal comes just weeks after Sweden’s Minister for Gender Equality, Åsa Lindhagen, took to Instagram to praise the idea of “Abortion Tourism” for Polish women.
Following the Polish court ruling, demonstrations erupted in parts of the country, some of which saw pro-abortion protestors interrupt Holy Mass in churches in several cities.
Poznan Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference commented on the protests late last month, saying: “I express my sadness that in many churches today believers have been prevented from praying and that the right to profess their faith has been forcibly taken away.”