Hedda Lindahl was a Folkpartiet (Liberal People's Party) politician who was mainly active within the local sphere and in Älvsborg county council. During the 1978–1979 period she served as Minister of Health in Ola Ullsten’s government.

Hedda Lindahl was born in Vasa congregation in Gothenburg on 16 February 1919. Her father, Hans Rudolf Richert, was a civil engineer and originally came from Stockholm. Her mother, Ragna Erika Reteurwall, belonged to Trollhättan.

Little is known of Hedda Lindahl’s childhood and rearing. During the 1940s she moved to Alingsås, where she and her husband Gunnar Lindahl were active members of Folkpartiet. One of her husband’s roles was as chair of the local association in Alingsås in the 1951–1956 period whilst Hedda Lindahl primarily involved herself in educational matters, initially as a board member of the school board and later as its chair. She was elected onto the town and municipal councils in 1966. She held that post for 12 years.

Hedda Lindahl’s position on Älvsborg county council dated from 1955. She was a member of the county hospital executive board and she was deputy chair of the health board. Through Landstingsförbundet (association of county councils) she not only participated in a survey of future developments of health care services, but also in an enquiry into maternity care. She was also responsible for embellishments to buildings and areas related to the health service.

In 1978 Prime Minister Ola Ullsten appointed Hedda Lindahl as Minister of Health. At the time she was unfamiliar to the wider public and her appointment came as a surprise. Her party colleagues described her period as minister in an obituary published in Dagens Nyheter: “She quickly became the media’s darling, through her charm and her modesty. She did not hesitate in taking advantage of the situation and was happy to be described as a willing amateur”.

By the time Hedda Lindahl took up her post as cabinet minister her many years serving the county council in leading positions had given her a thorough knowledge of the health service. Hedda Lindahl has been described as well-liked by her government colleagues and by the ministry of health and social affairs. She was a determined person, working towards obvious goals, who was strongly motivated by social-liberal interests.

Her ministerial post only lasted one year. The Lindahls settled at the Stora Tjuttorp farm in Vara municipality and there Hedda Lindahl threw herself into local politics both within the council and the authority.

Hedda Lindahl was widowed in 1993. She spent the final years of her life back in Alingsås. She died in January 2007.