Does religious counselling on abortion comply with Sweden’s ‘women-friendly’ abortion policies? a qualitative exploration among religious counsellors
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Authors
Arousell, Jonna
Carlbom, Aje
Johnsdotter, Sara
Essén, Birgitta
Issue Date
2019-05-30
Type
Article
Language
en_US
Keywords
Abortion , Women’s Rights , Religious Counselling , Diversity Promotion , The Diversity–Equality Paradox , Healthcare , Sweden
Alternative Title
Abstract
The abortion discourse in Sweden is marked by historically liberal ideals about women’s inviolable right to make autonomous reproductive decisions. However, to respond to the increase in cultural and religious pluralism building up over several decades, religious organizations have been given opportunities to provide so-called spiritual care in affiliation with Swedish hospitals since the 1980s. In this study we asked: in what ways do religious counsellors, affiliated with Swedish hospitals, construct their ideas on abortion, and how well do their ideas comply with Sweden’s ‘women-friendly’ abortion policies? Through interviews with Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and Buddhist religious counsellors, we wanted to empirically test the presumption underlying the decisions to grant space to religious actors in Swedish healthcare, i.e., that religious counselling serves to complement existing services. We found that it cannot be expected that religious advice on abortion will always comply with Swedish abortion law and with the women-friendly abortion policy that the Swedish state seeks to impose. When policy-makers open up possibilities for diverse norms on abortion to manifest in close affiliation with healthcare institutions, they must be aware that some religious counsellors argue that only God—and not the woman herself—can decide whether a woman can terminate a pregnancy. We argue that the findings in this study speaks to what researchers have referred to as the “diversity-equality paradox”, which highlights the tension between the promotion of religious ideas on abortion on the one hand and the promotion of liberal ideas about women’s reproductive freedom on the other.
Description
Citation
Arousell, J., Carlbom, A., Johnsdotter, S. et al. Does Religious Counselling on Abortion Comply with Sweden’s ‘Women-Friendly’ Abortion Policies? A Qualitative Exploration Among Religious Counsellors. Sexuality & Culture 23, 1230–1249 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09614-6
Publisher
Sexuality & Culture