Waiting for Abortion: Narratives of Passing Time, Decision-Making, and Late Abortions in Swedish TV Theater of the Late 1960s and Early 1970s

Abstract

This article examines two Swedish TV theater plays from the late 1960s and early 1970s, which both portray the experience of waiting for an abortion. In the early 1960s, a major debate on abortion started in Sweden, which resulted in the creation of a public inquiry into the matter in 1965 and eventually the introduction of abortion on demand in 1975. In the period between 1965 and 1975, attitudes to abortion were changing, but women still had to follow a complicated procedure when applying for legal abortion. Through an analysis of narrative form and reception, the article explores how the two TV plays represent the experience of waiting for abortion caused by this legal and social framework and further discusses the plays as expressions of a form of waiting for political change. Moreover, the article argues that early television has been an overlooked source for Swedish historical studies on abortion