“They are not welcome back here if they do things like this.” We must help these girls and women to live their lives, not a life of oppression, says Behcet Barsom (KD), chairman of the health and healthcare board in Örebro, to SVT.
SVT’s examination earlier this fall showed that 5 out of 20 private clinics surveyed performed virginity operations. Because it is a criticized activity, they are often carried out in secret.
The doctors who perform virginity operations have been hired by eleven regions, including Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Sörmland. However, then it has been about other types of beauty procedures, such as liposuction and hair transplants. One of the clinics has invoiced the regions for care for over SEK 10 million. However, all eleven regions distance themselves from the clinics and say that they will not be hired in the future.
“It goes against our core values,” writes for example Christoffer Öqvist (M), chairman of the regional board in Sörmland, to SVT. “We distance ourselves from the clinics that perform this type of intervention and they should not be hired,” writes Västmanland regional councilor Malin Gabrielsson (KD).
Madelene Larsson, investigator at the Gender Equality Agency, has previously told SVT that it is a gray area if the operations are really legal.
— According to the Patient Safety Act, doctors must act according to science and proven experience – and there is no hymen. So doctors should be able to lose their credentials on this.