Abortion Is Communism: a Genealogy of "Abortion Culture" Heather Nicole Bradford Minnesota State University - Mankato
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Minnesota State University, Mankato Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato All Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects Projects 2015 Abortion is Communism: A Genealogy of "Abortion Culture" Heather Nicole Bradford Minnesota State University - Mankato Follow this and additional works at: http://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds Part of the Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Regional Sociology Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Bradford, Heather Nicole, "Abortion is Communism: A Genealogy of "Abortion Culture"" (2015). All Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects. Paper 412. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects at Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. 1 Abortion is Communism: A Genealogy of “Abortion Culture” Heather Bradford 04/07/2015 2 Abortion is Communism: A Genealogy of “Abortion Culture” An Thesis Submitted to the Department of Sociology and Corrections in partial fulfillment of the Master’s Degree Minnesota State University-Mankato by Heather Bradford April 7 th 2015 3 Abortion is Communism: A Genealogy of “Abortion Culture” by Heather Bradford Approved for submittal to the Department of Sociology and Corrections for consideration of granting graduation: Research Sponsor ______________________ Date ________________________ William Wagner Second Reader ______________________ Date ________________________ Paul Prew Third Reader ______________________ Date ________________________ James Dimock 4 Table of contents I. Introduction P. 6 II. Methodology P. 9 III. Abortion in Ancient Western History P. 15 IV. Abortion and Christian History P. 21 IV. Abortion in American History P. 28 V. American Abortion: From Illegality to Legality P. 36 VI. American Abortion and the Rise of the Pro-Life Movement P.45 VII. A Genealogy of Abortion Culture P. 61 VIII. The Meaning of Rare P. 66 IX. The Abortion and Contraceptive Dichotomy P. 73 X. Abortion as a Social Experience P. 79 XI. The Construction of Choice P. 84 XII. Deconstructing Demographic Crisis P.99 XIII. The Medicalization of Abortion P. 110 XIV. The Reproductive Panopticon P. 114 XV. Abortion is Communism P. 128 XVI. Conclusion P. 146 References P. 149 5 Abstract: In the twenty years since the collapse of communism in the Eastern Bloc, various scholars of history, women’s studies, sociology, political science, and reproductive rights have studied the occurrence of abortion in these formerly communist countries. Although some have sought to question the notion of “abortion culture,” most look to these countries as places where abortion was tragically prevalent and accepted. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the assumed knowledge concerning abortion and how this obscures understandings of abortion in formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe. By creating genealogy of “abortion culture,” this research seeks to trace the history of how abortion came to be understood as a moral issue, the power behind these understandings, and the resulting consequences. Throughout history, abortion has been understood many different ways until evolving into the understanding that it is negative, it is a moral issue, it is a medical issue, it should be limited, and should only occur rarely. These taken for granted understandings have shaped how abortion in formerly communist countries have been researched and discussed. Beyond academia, these understandings have resulted in a pairing of communism and abortion designed to discredit both. I. Introduction 6 Within the United States abortion as an issue, a phenomenon, and a word is controversial, and polarizing. It is highly moralized and politicized. Because of this, it is difficult to see outside of this mire of conflicting world views, morals, controversies, and values. Likewise, communism, as an ideology, word, morality, value system, and adversary has been misunderstood, maligned, misrepresented, and made controversial. Both communism and abortion invoke strong emotions and actions. When abortion and communism are joined together into “abortion culture,” a powerful chimera of fear, loathing, othering, and discomfort is created. However, these particular understandings of abortion and communism are not inevitable, but historical and social developments. Further, these particular understandings of abortion and communism serve powerful interests. According to Michel Foucault, knowledge comes from meaning and meaning is created through discourse. What is known about them separately or when combined into “abortion culture” is the product of discursive rules, authoritative truths, institutional practices, or in short, power knowledge (Hall 2001). It is therefore the task of this paper to trace the historical developments of these particular understandings that new ways of thinking can be achieved. Since the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), there has been some scholarly interest in abortion in formerly communist countries on account of the different rates, conditions, and attitudes towards abortion in these countries as compared to Western capitalist countries. These differences are often viewed as problematic, as rates of abortion were believed by researchers to be too high. The high rates of abortion and use of abortion over contraceptives was called “abortion culture.” Scholars believed that ideally the rates should be lowered and to achieve this, contraceptive use should be encouraged. A watershed moment in the history of “abortion culture” was a 1990 conference in Tbilisi entitled, 7 “From Abortion to Contraception: Public Health Approaches to Preventing Unwanted Pregnancy and Abortion Through Improved Family Planning Services.” One hundred and seventy participants from twenty six mainly European countries attended the conference, including representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), and International Planned Parenthood Federation. The UNFPA did not view abortion as a means of contraception and supported reducing the number of abortions. The organization also provided the keynote speaker for the event. The theme of the conference was that abortion numbers were high, but could be reduced with contraceptives (David 1992). Although this position may seem quite reasonable, it fostered the notion that “abortion culture” should be treated as a social problem. A typical example of the attitude that “abortion culture” is a social problem was Adrej Popov’s, “Family Planning and Induced Abortion in Post-Soviet Russia of the Early 1990s: Unmet Needs in Information Supply.” The article outlined contraceptive use and abortion rates throughout the Soviet Union and very clearly considered the situation a social problem in stating that Russia “is one of the few economically developed countries where abortion still prevails over the use of contraceptives in family planning. The difference between Russia and all Western countries lies not only in this temporal lag, but also in the continuing and widespread underestimation of this as a social problem for Russia (Popov 1994).” This basic assumption has dominated most research on this topic. Nevertheless, there are some notable exceptions to the treatment of “abortion culture” as a social problem. Gail Grant’s “Towards a Framework for the Analysis of Abortion Culture,” placed abortion in historical and cultural context in an attempt to understand the conditions in which abortion culture emerged in Estonia (2005). Victor Agadjanian has also added to understanding “abortion culture” by placing abortion in the cultural context of Kazakhstan 8 (2002). Larissa Remennick likewise studied the abortion experiences of Russian women in Israel and Boston (2001, 2007). Perhaps one of the best analysts of abortion culture is Dag Stenvoll, who was one of the few scholars to place “abortion culture” not only in cultural and historical context, but a larger constructionist context. That is, abortion and contraceptives are socially constructed categories which may have different meanings and understandings. Stenvoll observed that few pro-choice advocates consider that abortion could be good, even if they accept it as necessary (2004). Attempts to place the development of “abortion culture” into historical and cultural context have centered upon rooting it in the history of CEE and Soviet countries. In other words, the origin story of “abortion culture” is rooted in the history of communist countries. This analysis is deficient because although it seeks to contextualize and understand “abortion culture” it continues to uphold the assumption that “they” are the different ones whose social conditions require explanation and that “we” the West, are normal. Therefore, any attempt to understand “abortion culture” should begin with how abortion came to be understood as it is within our own culture. Another oversight in the research is the lack of focus on the ways in which these understandings serve power. So, whereas much of the research has focused on understanding the conditions