315 #WeWillNotReport – Physicians’ engagement in public protests against the mandatory reporting of undocumented patients in Sweden

Abstract OP 9: Health Services 1, B210 (FCSH), September 3, 2025, 15:45 - 16:45 In the fall of 2023, Sweden witnessed the emergence of a social movement protesting the current government’s initiative to legislate the mandatory reporting of undocumented patients seeking healthcare. As part of the Boundaries Longitudinal Study, we have investigated this movement’s formation and evolution, its messaging and communication strategies, and the role of physicians in protests, both in organised events in public squares and on social media. This paper presents findings from a multi-sited ethnography that followed the movement from fall 2023 to fall 2024. Data was generated through participant observation at in-person protests in Gothenburg and Stockholm, accounts of protest actions gathered through qualitative interviews with physicians, and observing physicians’ social media engagement through the hashtag #viangerinte (#wewillnotreport). Our findings illuminate how individual physicians, physicians’ unions, and non-governmental organisations representing physicians (such as Medecins Sans Frontier and Medecins du Monde) have engaged in public protest against what they called the The Reporter’s Act (Angiverilagen), both in-person and on social media, actively contesting the government’s initiative. Our analysis provides insights to how physicians reasoned, organised, and protested. Physicians also reported already witnessing confusion among colleagues and fear of seeking care among undocumented patients, illustrating the detrimental impact of social movement rhetorics that frame initiatives to legislate mandatory reporting as already existing law. The protests led to the Swedish government redirecting the initiative to exempt healthcare professionals from mandatory reporting. Nonetheless, several legal changes are expected that will continue to challenge physicians’ ability to make independent medical decisions regarding undocumented patients. They will also be expected to engage in supporting law enforcement in various restrictive practices as part of strengthened inland border control. The study will continue to longitudinally monitor developments of migration control policies as they enter healthcare contexts.