Sweden‘s Sterilization Law
Sweden, often viewed as a beacon of political correctness, has, ironically, one of the most discriminatory laws concerning reproductive rights in the world.
Swedish politicians are currently split over a 1972 law requiring individuals seeking to undergo gender reassignment surgery to be sterilized and unmarried. A potential amendment to the law will be reviewed this year, though the sterilization requirements will not be altered.
The law was critiqued by the rights group Human Rights Watch this January, which wrote a letter to the Swedish government stating that the law caused “anguish for transgender people who choose not to have the required surgery. . .out of a wish to one day become parents”.
Sweden is noted for such cutting-edge (and some would argue, extreme) trends such as male-attempted breastfeeding, men taking on female gender names (to show solidarity with the female plight), and laws criminalizing prostitution only for male customers and not for female prostitutes. Transgendered rights to reproduce are a reality in the USA and elsewhere. In this context, Sweden’s discriminatory law seems highly ironic.
State Supported Sterilization: Global Trends
Forced (or coerced) sterilization of minorities (sexual or racial) is, unfortunately, not a new concept to history. Although Nazi Germany is the most notorious example of eugenics program that included forced sterilization has occurred in other countries, including the USA.
Between 1929 and 1974, nearly 7,600 people were sterilized in North Carolina alone, under orders from a state-run Eugenics Board. The program was implemented to rid the state’s population of “undesirables”: the mentally ill, diseased, “feebleminded”, or anyone else that was felt to be somehow deviant. The state of North Caroline is still approving legislation awardingvictims of these treatments $50 thousand in compensation – a sum that many victims feel is insufficient.
Coerced population-control efforts haven’t been restricted to domestic policies. In the early 1990’s “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Oversees Interests (NSSM 200)” went public; the memorandum, which had been completed in 1974, theorized that population growth in least developed countries was a concern to U.S. security. The policy advocated for urgent population control measures and promotion of contraception in 13 countries (of which Thailand was one), in order to protect U.S.interest in these countries.
NSSM 200 was vigorously opposed by the Catholic Church and was, reportedly, not implemented in its proposed form. In a case of déjà vu the Catholic Church is again at the forefront of a fight against what Catholics allege is a case of government supported sterilization and religious persecution.
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