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Title [sv]
Abort, politik och medicin i Sverige 1938 - 1965
Title [en]
Abortion, politics and medicine in Sweden 1938 - 1965
Abstract [sv]
Projektets syfte är att analysera politik och medicinsk teori respektive praktik relaterad till abort i Sverige åren 1938 till 1965. Perioden utmärks av ökade lagliga möjligheter för kvinnor att få abort, framför allt genom införandet av den socialmedicinska indikationen i abortlagen år 1946, samtidigt som de reella möjligheterna att erhålla abort synes ha minskat kraftigt under 1950-talet. 1950-talet var en tid av ökad restriktivitet; antalet beviljade aborter halverades under decenniet. Av särskilt intresse är abort som konfliktfråga mellan gynekologer och psykiatriker. Psykiatrins inflytande över ansökningar om legal abort ökade starkt under perioden. Central blir studiet av kvinnosynen, det vill säga de idéer och föreställningar om kvinnors uppgifter i familj och samhälle liksom om kvinnors eventuella natur som kommer till uttryck i källmaterialet. Målet är att ge ny kunskap om och nya perspektiv på abortens historia, gynekologins och psykiatrins historia liksom på de socialpolitiska strävandena i det svenska folkhemmet.
Abstract [en]
The aim of the project is to analyze politics and medical theory as well as practice related to abortion in Sweden 1938 -1965. During the period, women´s access to legal abortion increased, in particular from 1946 when a socio-medical indication was added to the law. In the 1950´s though, access seems to have decreased; the numbers of legal abortions were halved. Abortion was an issue of conflict between gynecologists and psychiatrists, and the impact of psychiatry grew. In the project, ideas and beliefs on women and women s role in family and society will be discussed. The aim is to provide new knowledge and perspectives on the history of abortion, the history of gynecology and psychiatry and of the social policy of the Swedish welfare state.
Publications (4 of 4) Show all publications
Lennerhed, L. (2019). Sherri Finkbine Flew to Sweden: Abortion and Disability in the Early 1960s. In: Christabelle Sethna & Gayle Davis (Ed.), Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services (pp. 25-45). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Sherri Finkbine Flew to Sweden: Abortion and Disability in the Early 1960s
2019 (English)In: Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services / [ed] Christabelle Sethna & Gayle Davis, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019, p. 25-45Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019
National Category
History of Science and Ideas
Research subject
Historical Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-38011 (URN)9781421427294 (ISBN)
Funder
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, P13-1126:1
Available from: 2019-04-16 Created: 2019-04-16 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved
Lennerhed, L. (2017). Kvinnotrubbel: abort i Sverige 1938-1974. Möklinta: Gidlunds förlag
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Kvinnotrubbel: abort i Sverige 1938-1974
2017 (Swedish)Book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Möklinta: Gidlunds förlag, 2017. p. 208
Keywords
abort, psykiatrihistoria, kvinnosyn
National Category
History of Science and Ideas
Research subject
Historical Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-33954 (URN)978-91-7844-986-6 (ISBN)
Funder
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, P13-1126:1
Available from: 2017-12-21 Created: 2017-12-21 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved
Lennerhed, L. (2017). Troubled women: Abortion and psychiatry in Sweden in the 1940s and 1950s. In: Shannon Stettner; Katrina Ackerman; Kristin Burnett; Travis Hay (Ed.), Transcending Borders: Abortion in the Past and Present (pp. 89-100). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Troubled women: Abortion and psychiatry in Sweden in the 1940s and 1950s
2017 (English)In: Transcending Borders: Abortion in the Past and Present / [ed] Shannon Stettner; Katrina Ackerman; Kristin Burnett; Travis Hay, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, p. 89-100Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Using the concept of psychiatrization as an aspect of medicalization, Lennerhed shows how legal abortion in Sweden increasingly came to be seen as a psychiatric issue in the 1940s and 1950s. In the Swedish welfare state, where abortion on medical, eugenic, and humanitarian grounds had been introduced in 1938, politicians, doctors, and the women’s movement protected the notion of good motherhood while abortion was described as a last resort. Women’s demand for abortion was explained by factors such as mental insufficiency. The diagnoses on women applying for abortion can thus be interpreted as a disciplinary process. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
National Category
History of Science and Ideas
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-33841 (URN)10.1007/978-3-319-48399-3_6 (DOI)2-s2.0-85034266422 (Scopus ID)978-3-319-48398-6 (ISBN)978-3-319-48399-3 (ISBN)
Funder
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, P13-1126:1
Available from: 2017-12-08 Created: 2017-12-08 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved
Lennerhed, L. (2015). Kvinnan, aborten och teratologin. Lychnos, 141-163
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Kvinnan, aborten och teratologin
2015 (Swedish)In: Lychnos, ISSN 0076-1648, p. 141-163Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Lärdomshistoriska samfundet, 2015
Keywords
abortion, foetal damage, eugenics, rubella, thalidomide, Finkbine, abort, fosterskador, eugenik, röda hund, neurosedyn, Finkbine
National Category
History of Science and Ideas
Research subject
Historical Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-29245 (URN)
Funder
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, P13-1126:1
Available from: 2016-01-20 Created: 2016-01-20 Last updated: 2025-02-21Bibliographically approved
Principal InvestigatorLennerhed, Lena
Coordinating organisation
Södertörn University
Funder
Period
2014-01-01 - 2016-12-31
National Category
History of IdeasHistory
Identifiers
DiVA, id: project:1721Project, id: P13-1126:1_RJ

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