Sweden’s abortion law was introduced in 1975. The new inquiry, which presented its results on Tuesday, had the aim of adapting that law to take account of medical developments which have taken place since.
Currently, abortions must be carried out in a clinical environment.
This means that patients who undergo a medical abortion – an abortion where a patient takes medication to end a pregnancy, rather than surgery – need to take their first tablet in a hospital or clinic, after which they can usually continue treatment at home.
Under the new rules, the inquiry proposes making it possible for patients to take all medication at home, as well as allowing midwives, not just doctors, to issue prescriptions for abortion medication.
The patient will still need to visit a clinic or hospital for assessment before they can get an abortion.
The inquiry also recommends clearly enshrining the right to abortion until week 18 of a pregnancy into Swedish law.
Finally, it recommends updating the language used to be gender neutral, changing the word “woman” to “the person who is pregnant”.
“Nowadays it’s possible for someone who is legally male to become pregnant, and they should also have the right to an abortion,” said Inga-Maj Andersson, head of the inquiry.
“This does not negatively affect the right to abort for women, it’s still a women’s rights issue,” she added.
In 1972, Sweden was the first country in the world to allow trans people to change their legal gender, which among other things changes the second-to-last number in their personal number (women are assigned even numbers while men have odd numbers) and the letter designating their gender in their passport.
Until 2013, the law also stated that anyone who changed their legal gender had to “lack the ability to procreate”, which essentially meant people could not change their gender without also undergoing sterilisation.
That is no longer the case, which means that a trans man can be legally male while also having a uterus and ovaries.
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