# Compulsory sterilisation in Sweden

Compulsory sterilisation in Sweden were sterilisations which were carried out in Sweden, without a valid consent of the subject, during the years 1906–2013 on eugenic, medical and social grounds. Between 1972 and 2013, sterilisation was also a condition for gender reassignment surgery.

## Legal grounds

In 1922 the State Institute of Racial Biology was founded in Uppsala. In the 1930s, a law was passed that allowed mass sterilisation. The stated rationale behind the legislation was to prevent sterilisation from becoming a contraceptive method in the hands of the individual.
Another law, passed in 1941, was more far reaching and stated three broad grounds on which sterilisation could be carried out:
* Medical, if a pregnancy could pose a risk to life or good health of a woman with chronic illness or permanently weakened constitution.
* Eugenic, which allowed sterilising people considered insane or with severe illness or with a physical disability, so that these traits are not passed on the offspring.
* Social, which allowed sterilising people deemed unsuitable to foster a child due to mental illness, being feebleminded or having an antisocial lifestyle.
The law did not foresee any age of consent limit. However, it was never legal to physically restrain a person.

## Statistics

The number of eugenic sterilisations peaked in the 1940s; from 1946, the number of sterilisations under the 1941 legal provisions gradually decreased.
In 1997, on behalf of the Swedish government, the ethnologists Mikael Eivergård and Lars-Eric Jönsson made an attempt at estimating what percentage of sterilisations were coerced. They found that a quarter of the applications were made under circumstances similar to coercion such as a condition for release from an institution and that another 9 percent were signed under pressure. In half of the cases they found no sign of coercion or pressure, but signs of the applicants' own initiative. Tydén uses these percentages to make an estimate of the number of operations under coercion. He found that 15,000 were made as a condition for release and that another 5500 to 6000 were made under other kinds of pressure, whereas 30,000 were voluntary and on the applicants' own initiative.
According to a 2000 government report, 21,000 people were estimated to have been forcibly sterilised, 6,000 were coerced into a "voluntary" sterilisation while the nature of a further 4,000 cases could not be determined.
From the 2000s, the Swedish state paid out damages to victims who filed for compensation.

## Sterilisation during sex change

Until 2013, sterilisation was mandatory before sex change. This last mandatory sterilisation has been criticised by several political parties in Sweden and since 2011 the Parliament of Sweden was expected to change the law but ran into opposition from the Christian Democrat party. After efforts to overturn the law failed in parliament, the Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeal overturned the law on 19 December 2012, declaring it unconstitutional after the law was challenged by an unidentified plaintiff.
22 May 2013 vote in the Parliament of Sweden :
| Party | Votes for | Votes against | Abstained | Absent (Did not vote) |
| Swedish Social Democratic Party | 102 Christer AdelsboCarina Adolfsson ElgestamAnn-Christin AhlbergUrban AhlinJohan AnderssonPhia AnderssonLennart AxelssonIbrahim BaylanHåkan BergmanHannah BergstedtBo BernhardssonPatrik BjörckCatharina BråkenhielmSven-Erik BuchtClas-Göran CarlssonGunilla CarlssonCecilia Dalman EekAdnan DibraniSusanne EbersteinHans EkströmTomas EnerothChrister EngelhardtKerstin EngleLars ErikssonMatilda ErnkransKenneth G. ForslundIsak FromAgneta GilleMarie GranlundMonica GreenJonas GunnarssonBilly GustafssonKerstin HaglöLena HallengrenArhe HamednacaJörgen HellmanShadiye HeydariHans HoffPeter HultqvistCarina HäggKent HärstedtLeif JakobssonEva-Lena JanssonPeter JeppssonAnn-Kristine JohanssonLars JohanssonMorgan JohanssonYlva JohanssonPeter JohnssonMattias JonssonHåkan JuholtAnders KarlssonAnnelie KarlssonSara KarlssonYilmaz KerimoKurt KvarnströmKatarina KöhlerHillevi LarssonJan-Olof LarssonLars Mejern LarssonDésirée LiljevallTeres LindbergÅsa LindestamElin LundgrenJohan LöfstrandLouise MalmströmPyry NiemiIngemar NilssonJennie NilssonKerstin NilssonKristina NilssonIngela Nylund WatzCarina OhlssonFredrik OlovssonHans OlssonJasenko OmanovicChristina OskarssonPeter PerssonHelene PeterssonHelén PetterssonLeif PetterssonRaimo PärssinenCarin RunesonGunnar SandbergLena SommestadEva SonidssonMaria StenbergThomas StrandGunilla SvantorpPer SvedbergSuzanne SvenssonBjörn i von SydowAnna-Lena SörensonOlle ThorellHans UnanderBörje VestlundTommy WaidelichMeeri WasbergAnders YgemanChristina ZedellKarin ÅströmKrister Örnfjäder | - | - | 10 Ann ArlekloMikael DambergAnnika DuànCaroline Helmersson OlssonBerit HögmanFredrik Lundh SammeliPia NilssonMarie NordénVeronica PalmArdalan Shekarabi |
| G Moderate Party | 102 Anton AbeleBoriana ÅbergMaria AbrahamssonAmir AdanAnette ÅkessonChrister AkejJan R. AnderssonJörgen AnderssonStaffan AngerSofia ArkelstenAnn-Britt ÅsebolLena AsplundMetin AtasevenAnti AvsanGunnar AxénHanif BaliLars BeckmanEva Bengtson SkogsbergFinn BengtssonUlf BergSten BerghedenPer BillElisabeth Björnsdotter RahmCarl-Oskar BohlinHelena BouvengCecilia BrinckAnne Marie BrodénNils BrownKatarina BrännströmStefan CaplanMikael CederbrattMargareta CederfeltÅsa CoenraadsSedat DogruBino DrummondLars ElindersonAnnicka EngblomJan EricsonThomas FinnborgLotta FinstorpJohan ForssellSusanna HabyPia HallströmAnn-Charlotte Hammar JohnssonKrister HammarberghAnders HanssonLars HjälmeredGustaf HoffstedtChristian HolmJohan HultbergCristina Husmark PehrssonJonas Jacobsson GjörtlerIsabella JernbeckBengt-Anders JohanssonJohan JohanssonMats JohanssonEllen JunttiPeter JutterströmUlrika KarlssonMargareta B. KjellinOlof LavessonEva LohmanKajsa LunderquistCecilia MagnussonBetty MalmbergGöran MontanGustav NilssonUlrik NilssonGunilla NordgrenAndreas NorlénEdip NoyanMarta ObminskaLotta OlssonJenny PeterssonJessica PolfjärdSaila QuicklundPatrick ReslowAnna Rheyneuclaudes KihlmanEdward RiedlHenrik RipaJessica RosencrantzHans RothenbergJan-Evert RådhströmBjörn SamuelsonFredrik SchulteKarl SigfridLars-Arne StaxängElisabeth SvantessonMichael SvenssonHenrik i von SydowCecilie Tenfjord-ToftbyEwa Thalén FinnéTomas TobéJessika VilhelmssonAbdirizak WaberiPeder WachtmeisterHans WallmarkCamilla Waltersson GrönvallLinda WemmertCecilia WidegrenRune WikströmOskar Öholm | - | - | 5 Boriana ÅbergJan R. AnderssonSten BerghedenReza Khelili DylamiBjörn Hamilton |
| Green Party | 23 Jabar AminStina BergströmPer BolundAgneta BörjessonBodil CeballosEsabelle DingizianTina EhnMagnus EhrencronaGunvor G. EricsonJonas ErikssonPeter ErikssonMaria FermUlf HolmHelena LeanderAnnika LillemetsJan LindholmAgneta LuttroppValter MuttLise NordinKew NordqvistMats PertoftÅsa RomsonPeter Rådberg | - | - | 2 Gustav FridolinMehmet Kaplan |
| G Liberal People's Party | 21 Tina AcketoftGunnar AndrénGulan AvciHans BackmanAnita BrodénEmma Carlsson LöfdahlEva FlyborgKarin Granbom EllisonRoger HaddadCarl B. HamiltonIsmail KamilStefan KällNina LarssonMaria Lundqvist-BrömsterUlf NilssonChrister NylanderJohan PehrsonAnna SteeleLars TysklindBarbro WesterholmAllan Widman | - | - | 3 Jan ErtsbornNina LundströmChrister Winbäck |
| G Centre Party | 21 Anders AhlgrenAnders ÅkessonAbir Al-SahlaniDaniel BäckströmUlrika CarlssonStaffan DanielssonFredrick FederleyInger FredrikssonOla JohanssonPer-Ingvar JohnssonEmil KällströmJohan LinanderHelena LindahlGöran LindellPer LodeniusKerstin LundgrenKarin NilssonRickard NordinAnnika QarlssonÅsa TorstenssonSolveig Zander | - | - | 2 Anders W. JonssonPer Åsling |
| Sweden Democrats | - | 20 Jonas ÅkerlundJimmie ÅkessonThoralf AlfssonStellan BojerudKent EkerothJosef FranssonAnna HagwallCarina HerrstedtMikael JanssonRichard JomshofMattias KarlssonOlle LarssonDavid LångAdam MarttinenPer RamhornJohnny SkalinSven-Olof SällströmBjörn SöderMarkus WiechelTony Wiklander | - | - |
| Left Party | 17 Bengt BergMarianne BergTorbjörn BjörlundJosefin BrinkRossana DinamarcaJens HolmSiv HolmaChristina Höj LarsenJacob JohnsonAmineh KakabavehHans LindeLars OhlyEva OlofssonLena OlssonKent PerssonJonas SjöstedtMia Sydow Mölleby | - | - | 2 Ulla AnderssonWiwi-Anne Johansson |
| G Christian Democrats | 12 Anders AnderssonYvonne AnderssonAnnika EclundPenilla GuntherRobert HalefEmma HenrikssonLars-Axel NordellIrene OskarssonDésirée PethrusAnders SellströmCaroline SzyberRoland Utbult | - | 4 Annelie EnochsonMikael OscarssonMagnus SjödahlTuve Skånberg | 3 Andreas CarlsonLars GustafssonMats Odell |
| Total | 298 | 20 | 4 | 27 |