One of Sweden’s 21 counties is considering to introduce a ban on religious circumcision, the Swedish online newspaper ‘Sydöstran’ reported on Thursday.
Per-Ola Mattsson, commissioner of Blekinge County, said he would raise the subject in February with the county’s health board, which he chairs. Mattson said he was opposed the practice because minors had “no possibility to say no to the surgery and therefore the county should not perform these procedures.”
Circumcision without medical reasons could not be included in council care, Mattsson said, adding that it was not possible for children to say no to the procedure.
Located in southern Sweden, Blekinge has a population of about 150,000. In Sweden, nonmedical and medical circumcision may be performed only by licensed professionals, as per legislation from 2001.
Under the legislation, Jewish ritual circumcisers in Sweden receive their licenses from the country’s health board, but a nurse or doctor must still be present when they perform the procedure. Representatives of the country’s Jewish community told JTA they were pleased with the arrangement as it did not prevent them from performing the ritual.
In recent years, Scandinavian countries have seen an intensification of efforts to ban ritual circumcision by activists who say it violates children’s rights and by anti-immigration nationalists who seek to limit the effect that Muslim presence is having on Swedish society.
