For the Wednesday night edition of Amanpour and Company on PBS and CNN International, host Christiane Amanpour thought it was appropriate to ask Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to condemn the Supreme Court for its Dobbs ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade.
Following some discussion on Sweden’s imminent acceptance into NATO, Amanpour switched gears, “Can I just quickly switch a little bit to -- presumably you’ve all been having discussions with your other counterparts, including President Biden. I just wanted to ask you, you know, Sweden has, for a long time, had a certain feminist foreign policy. You know what's happened in the United States, the reversal of women's rights in the United States for the first time ever in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.”
After referencing the January 6 hearings, Amanpour wondered, “What kind of things have you been saying to President Biden as you all talked about trying to maintain democracy in the world against Putin?”
Andersson avoided the January 6 bait, but was happy to play along on the abortion question, “Well, I mean, what is happening when it comes to women's rights in the United States is of course something that is worrying me and so many other women and men across the world. We in Sweden, we've had a feminist policy, a feminist government for many years now. And of course, we stand up for women's rights all over the world.”
Of course, Andersson was doing this interview from the NATO summit in Madrid because Sweden feels it is compelled to join the real world and yet she is unwisely commenting on the internal affairs of her new ally, “I'm so worried that the decision in the United States will make so many women suffer, both for their lives and for their health because this is what we see in countries where abortions aren't legal.”
Not only did Amanpour promote abortion and ask a foreign leader and soon to be ally to condemn Americans, her framing wasn’t even accurate. For one thing, Dobbs made America more democratic and secondly, Sweden’s abortion limit is 18 weeks, something Roe and Casey wouldn’t have allowed.
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Here is a transcript for the June 30 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
6/29/2022
11:16 PM ET
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Can I just quickly switch a little bit to -- presumably you’ve all been having discussions with your other counterparts, including President Biden. I just wanted to ask you, you know, Sweden has, for a long time, had a certain feminist foreign policy. You know what's happened in the United States, the reversal of women's rights in the United States for the first time ever in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. And you can see the hearings and what they’re saying about President Trump's attempt to reverse democracy writ large. What kind of things have you been saying to President Biden as you all talked about trying to maintain democracy in the world against Putin?
MAGDALENA ANDERSSON: Well, I mean, what is happening when it comes to women's rights in the United States is of course something that is worrying me and so many other women and men across the world. We in Sweden, we've had a feminist policy, a feminist government for many years now. And of course, we stand up for women's rights all over the world. I'm so worried that the decision in the United States will make so many women suffer, both for their lives and for their health because this is what we see in countries where abortions aren't legal.
