Four Swedish political parties have announced their support for a change to the country’s constitution that would guarantee women the right to have abortions.
The Liberals, Centre Party, Greens, and the centre-right Moderates have all come out in support of change to enshrine the right of a woman to get an abortion in the country’s constitution.
Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates, explained his support for the proposal by telling the newspaper Aftonbladet: “Basically, we agree with what the Liberals have also demanded and which is actually quite a natural consequence of other free rights in Sweden that are constitutional. It is not because someone immediately threatens, but because you want to emphasize how important they are.”
Leader of the Centre Party Annie Lööf argued that the current laws in Sweden on abortion are not liberal enough, saying: “Such a fundamental right must not be the subject of political trends at all. That would be an extremely serious development. For me and the Centre Party, it is obvious that all women should have the right to decide over their own bodies.”
The Left Party and the allegedly conservative Christian Democrats have not come out in direct support of a constitutional change but are open to looking into such a proposal.
“It is important that abortion rights are and remain a lasting right. This includes ensuring that it also works in practice, for example, that healthcare professionals may never, because of their private opinions, deny someone an abortion to which they are entitled,” Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar said through her press secretary.
Sweden has one of the highest rates of abortion in Europe per capita, seeing a total of 33,700 abortions performed in 2021, with 75 per cent of all abortions being so-called home abortions — a two-step medical procedure in which the second step is performed at the home of the woman having the abortion.
Swedish politicians are not the only ones in Europe to react to the overturning of Roe V. Wade in the United States in recent days. In Germany, the country’s parliament, the Bundestag, has already voted to further liberalise abortion laws.
Prior to the overturning of Roe V. Wade, Canadian government families minister Karina Gould proposed Americans who could not access abortions should simply travel to Canada to do so instead.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has also been vocal on the subject, declaring that the overturning of the case, which will allow individual U.S. states to decide their abortion laws, was “horrific”.
“No government, politician, or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. I want women in Canada to know that we will always stand up for your right to choose,” he proclaimed.