The Right to Make Choices About Our Bodies Only Belongs to Us!

Induced Abortion and the Communist Women’s Press in Interwar Czechoslovakia

Abstract

This article analyses the discourse of the communist women’s press in the First Czechoslovak Republic in connection with the induced abortion. Most radical voices of the time regarding the right to terminate one’s own pregnancy can be found in the press of the far left which has been largely neglected in historiography so far, and therefore, this article strives to present these voices, not least because they reflect issues of gender equality and bodily integrity that are extremely relevant nowadays. The article also pays close attention to the heterogeneity of the communist discourse and the radical turn after the abortion ban in the Soviet Union. In addition, the analysis includes medical arguments supporting the communist discourse as well as the most relevant contradictory voices. It also sketches the developments in the communist women’s magazine Rozsévačka and the related political background, including the bills legalizing abortion. Finally, it problematizes the simple link between proponents of abortion rights nowadays and back then.