SEX AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: ABORTION, INFANTICIDE, AND WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE DECISION-MAKING IN FRANCE, 1901-1940 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Karen E. Huber, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Birgitte Søland, Adviser Professor Alice L. Conklin _________________________________ Adviser Professor Susan Hartmann Graduate Program in History ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of women who faced trial for reproductive crimes, including abortion and infanticide, in France between 1901 and 1940. It adds to an already rich historiography on the French demographic transition, the development of the welfare state, and the history of working class women by illuminating the relationship between women, their sexual and reproductive decision-making, and French society at the beginning of the twentieth century. This study examines women’s individual reproductive decisions within the larger historical context of a France that was modernizing, urbanizing, and embracing demographic theories that warned that a falling birthrate would lead to the decline of the nation. Within this context of change for France, women’s reproductive options also changed, as attitudes towards sexuality and family planning slowly shifted and as the safety and accessibility of clandestine abortion improved. Using methodologies of cultural and social history, this dissertation aims to uncover popular attitudes towards reproductive morality, the rights and duties of female citizens to be mothers, and the role of public authority in private lives during the French Third Republic. It begins in 1901, the year the French legislature eliminated the death penalty for infanticide in an effort to reverse decades of refusals by juries to convict ii obviously guilty but sympathetic women. This study ends in 1940 when France fell to Nazi invasion and the democratic Third Republic was replaced by the authoritarian and paternalist Vichy regime. While the changes that took place for women in France were significant, the continuities were also striking. Social attitudes towards unwed mothers changed slowly, but this did not necessarily mean that all unwed pregnant women were ostracized. Public sympathy for women who committed reproductive crimes after being abandoned by uncaring men remained constant from 1901 until the outbreak of the Second World War and juries continued to show pity for sympathetic criminals with lenient verdicts. The central questions this study addresses are how and to what extent women’s reproductive decision-making changed during the turbulent first four decades of the twentieth century. In order to answer these questions, the first three chapters examine the main options available to pregnant women who did not wish to become mothers. The first explores legal avenues for pregnant women in distress, including raising one’s child with the support of family and friends, relying upon nascent state-sponsored programs to help get through the difficulties of childbirth and early childhood, or officially abandoning one’s newborn to the care of the state. The second chapter turns to the age- old strategy of killing the unwanted infant as soon as it was born. The third chapter charts important changes in the safety and availability of illegal abortions. The fourth chapter investigates the way police, prosecutors, and judges worked to enforce reproductive laws, greatly influencing the role government policy on contraception and abortion played in the reproductive decisions made by ordinary Frenchwomen. In the iii fifth chapter, we ask how public opinion about women who committed reproductive crime changed as attitudes towards motherhood and sexuality shifted. iv For Nick v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been completed without the support of many people and institutions, none of whom will ever receive as much thanks from me as they deserve. Two wonderful scholars have advised me through different stages of my graduate career. John A. M. Rothney took me under his wing when I began the M.A. at Ohio State and helped me learn what it meant to be a professional historian. Birgitte Søland became my primary adviser upon Professor Rothney’s retirement and has guided me through the whole of the writing process. She deserves as much credit as I do for this project reaching fruition, as she was there every step of the way with the guidance, encouragement, and upon occasion, dire warnings, I needed to keep writing. My deepest thanks go to both of these fine scholars for their support. I am extremely grateful for the generous funding that made this dissertation possible. The American and French governments each funded a year-long research trip, first with a French Fulbright Grant and then with a Bourse Chateaubriand. A further trip to Lyon was funded by a Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Dissertation Grant and a Summer Research Grant from the College of Humanities at the Ohio State University. My final year of writing was underwritten by Ohio State’s Presidential Fellowship. As it is very difficult to focus on academic concerns if one does not have a place to live or access to funds, I must extend my gratitude to those who have made my vi overseas research trips run smoothly. Amy Tondu and the employees of the French Fulbright Commission were extremely helpful during my first year in Paris, as were the employees of EGIDE who oversaw the Chateaubriand two years later. Similarly, the wonderful staff in the Department of History at Ohio State, especially Joby Abernathy, has given me outstanding support for many years, and I thank them heartily. A number of scholars have generously given me their time and their feedback on this dissertation. I am grateful to Ohio State Professors Alan Beyerchen, Alice Conklin, Carole Fink, Susan Hartmann, Robin Judd, and Randy Roth who have each contributed to this dissertation in important ways. I would like to thank Armelle Le Bras-Chopard for sponsoring my application for the Fulbright Grant. Laura Lee Downs made me feel welcome in her seminars at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and has given her continued support to this dissertation since I returned to the United States. Fellow panelists and audience members at the 13 th Berkshire Conference and meetings of the Society for French Historical Studies, Social Science History Association, Western Society for French History, and Social History Society provided essential criticism and advice on several chapters of this dissertation. I would especially like to thank Elinor Accampo, James Donovan, Janet Galley, Atina Grossmann, and Patricia Stokes for their helpful input. Many graduate colleagues have contributed to this dissertation through their participation in research seminars and writing groups. My thanks to the members of seminars at Ohio State and EHESS led by Professors Conklin, Downs, Fink, Hartmann, and Søland, and in particular to Fabrice Cahen, Anne Colinson, vii David Dennis, Allison Efford, Mindy Farmer, Ursula Gurney, Jessica Pliley, and Angela Ryan. I doubt anyone can undertake such a large project without a lot of support from friends and family. I was lucky enough to have many friends in both Columbus and France willing to help me relax when I was stressed, cheer up when I despaired, and get to work when I felt lazy. Anna Chehtova, Victoria Clement, Kelly Diallo, Ned Harris, Rob Lewis, Virginie Sansico, and Benn Williams all helped keep me sane while I was conducting my research in France with transatlantic visits, coffee breaks, and drinks after the archives. My fellow graduate students Rachel Ball, Jim Bennett, Victoria Clement, Jieun Kang, Jason Powell, Audra Jennings, Rajiv Khanna, Emre Sencer, and Andrea Sittema have made life in the OSU history department a delight, and I will miss all of them as we each go our own way into the academic world. My family—Lynda and Terry Huber, Martin Huber, and Nick and Peg Steneck—have been very supportive, even when they wondered what was taking me so long. I have long anticipated the day when I can answer Dad’s weekly question, “Is the dissertation done?” in the affirmative! Finally, I owe my deepest debt of gratitude to Nicholas J. Steneck, a talented historian and most beloved husband. I met him in my first graduate class and he has a source of daily delight ever since. He planned our wedding more or less single-handedly because I was in France doing research, and celebrated our first two anniversaries alone for the same reason. Proofreader, chef, therapist, critic, handyman, animal wrangler, and carter of library books, Nick has made more sacrifices for this project than any other person, and it is thus to him this dissertation is dedicated. viii VITA May 27, 1976…………………….………… Born – Dayton, Ohio 1998…………………………………………B.A. French and History, University of Dayton 2002…………………………………………M.A. History, The Ohio State University 1998-2001, 2002-2003, 2004-2007…………Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………v Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….………vi Vita………………………………………………………………………………..………ix List of Figures……………………………………………………...……………………xiii Introduction: Women in Crisis…………………………………………………………….1 Unintended Pregnancies and Desperate Actions………………………..…...……6