Necessary and impossible: on spiritual questions in relation to early induced abortion

Abstract

No matter how technically developed and medically sophisticated our society becomes, in the end we are all going to die. In other words, as human beings we are, from time to time, forced to deal with situations of existential significance. Existential and spiritual questions remain relevant—even in a country where most people­ have abandoned institutional forms of religion. But how do people­ deal with these questions? Sweden continues to uphold an extreme position, from a global perspective, when it comes to religiosity and traditional values. No other country in the world has, to such a great extent, left traditional and survival values on the behalf of those based on rationality and self expression. Religious and ethnic minorities have brought new forms of piety to the Swedish scene, but secularization and religious privatization dominate. In this situation, it is important to study people’s ways of dealing with existential life situations. What do people think, feel, believe and do in the presence of the ultimate questions—when there exists no common ground for meaning-making? This article begins with an outline of the state of religion in Sweden, against the backdrop of the contemporary climate in Western culture. This is followed by an introduction to abortion in Sweden, and to abortion research of interest for this paper. Ritual participation is the next topic, leading to concepts of importance for the pilot study: existential homelessness and individualized rituals. In the rest of the article the focus is on the pilot study and a discussion of its results in relation to the existential situation in Sweden at large.

Existential experiences and needs related to induced abortion in a group of Swedish women: a quantitative investigation

“…Almost half of the women reported that they had done something special, or had wanted to do something special, to mark the abortion as an event, end the process, become reconciled with the situation, let off steam, or ask for forgiveness. From a psychology of religion perspective, this could be interpreted as a need for a symbolic or ritual closure [43,44]. In a country such as Sweden, where only a third of the population describe themselves as religious, this is particularly interesting [39].…”