Sweden Says Gender Based Abortions are Legal
May 13, 2009
(ChattahBox)—Swedish health authorities have ruled that under the current law, a woman is allowed to have an abortion, solely for the purpose of ending a pregnancy when the gender of the fetus is not what a woman wants. Health officials also decided that requests by pregnant women for gender testing, without a specific medical reason are allowed under the country’s laws.
This decision by Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare was in response to a Swedish woman who underwent repeat abortions of a healthy fetus because it wasn’t a boy. The woman already had two girls and wanted a boy.
Her doctors became uneasy when she underwent a routine amniocentesis to test for abnormalities and the woman demanded to know the sex of her fetus. The doctors felt uncomfortable informing the woman of the gender, because they knew she had a history of aborting fetuses based on gender.
The doctors were in an ethical quandary. If the fetus was a girl and they informed the woman, she may very well have terminated her pregnancy for a third time, based on gender.
The doctors requested guidance from the National Board of Health and they ruled that requests for gender identification and/or abortions for gender reasons couldn’t be denied under Sweden’s law.
Sweden allows a woman to terminate her pregnancy up until the 18th week.
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5 Responses to “Sweden Says Gender Based Abortions are Legal”
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Since when has a medical board the right to play God. The undeveloped baby in the womb has the right for the protection that a government could offer. Unfortunately this is a drastic departure from the Christian background of Sweden. A number of leading figures were named by God before they were born including John the Baptist and Jesus. A good thing that they were not born in this century, the parents may have wanted girls instead.
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