AHA Session 72
Central European History Society 6
Central European History Society 6
Friday, January 5, 2024: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Continental Ballroom 2 (Hilton Union Square, Ballroom)
Chair:
Melissa Feinberg, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Panel:
Melissa Feinberg, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Emily Gioielli, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Jill Massino, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Mie Nakachi, Hokusei Gakuen University
Kateryna Ruban, George Washington University
Emily Gioielli, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Jill Massino, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Mie Nakachi, Hokusei Gakuen University
Kateryna Ruban, George Washington University
Session Abstract
This roundtable explores abortion and reproductive rights in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Topics covered include the re-legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union in 1955 and the possibilities as well as limitations of this reproductive rights movement under state socialism; the shift from Cold War-era abortion and family laws in Hungary to contemporary conservative policies there; the use of abortion as a state tool of population management in Czechoslovakia and its successor states from 1918 to the present day; the politicization of abortion and role of doctors in Soviet and contemporary Ukraine; and how different actors--policymakers, NGOs, medical professionals, the Church, and others--have sought to shape reproductive policies in post-socialist Romania as well as how those efforts have affected women and their families. The participants will discuss how history helps us understand and talk about the contemporary backlash against reproductive health and rights.
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