"Private” motives of Swedish “public” health policy : a critical in-depth look at state boundaries and a national sex survey mandate

Abstract

Across the Western world, societies have been shifting focus toward sexual rights and capabilities unlike ever before. The famously sexually-progressive and democratic state of Sweden has recently mandated that a survey regarding the sexual and reproductive health and rights of its citizens be conducted in 2019, due to media evidence indicating that Swedes are having less sex. In the current international environment of populism, distrust culture, anti-immigration sentiments, along with the rapid rise of a far-right political party in Sweden, it appears as though the reaches of state boundaries concerning the public-private divide becomes increasingly questionable. Is the Swedish government trying to ensure the sexual health capabilities of its citizenry, or is the government more interested in who amongst its population is in fact reproducing or not?