A trans man has become the first to give birth to a baby in Finland. | Photo: Pixabay
A trans man has become the first to carry a pregnancy full term and deliver a baby in Finland.
Assigned female at birth, the roughly 30-year-old man began the transition process about ten years ago.
But the man, known under the pseudonym of Johannes, decided to put his hormone therapy on hold to become pregnant.
Finland controversially requires trans people to get sterilization surgery before they are recognized officially as their true gender. The law requires trans people to have ‘been sterilized’ or be ‘for some other reason infertile’ before their legal gender can be changed.
Born a little overdue in the middle of March, Johannes and his partner, Petri’s baby is healthy.
‘The baby weighed nearly four kilograms and was 53 centimetres in length (at birth),’ he told Lännen Media.
Legal hurdles
Johannes spoke out against the controversy surrounding his pregnancy in Finland, saying he has as much right to start a family as anyone else.
‘Do I want the society to dictate what I can do with my body and my life? Nothing can stop me. I’m a free man,’ he told Helsingin Sanomat during his pregnancy.
The couple said although medical staff treated them well during the pregnancy they had concerns about the lack of recognition of his pregnancy.
Finland doesn’t recognize when a man is pregnant, so Johannes’ pregnancy was never officially on any medical records. The couple have registered the issue with the Ombudsman for Gender Equality.
‘We have been treated well as a family and me as a person, and there is no problem in our situation,’ he said.
‘We have been very well supported, which has been a very positive surprise.’
Finland is under international pressure to change its forced sterilization laws for trans people.
The United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights have criticized it for the law.
But he Finnish Government recently refused to make any changes to the law after recommendations from the UN Human Rights Council.
