Motherhood, Patriotism, and Ethnicity

Soviet Kazakhstan and the 1936 Abortion Ban

Bibliographic Data

ID4414487
AuthorsPaula A Michaels (0000-0002-2877-5495, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume27
Issue2
Pages307
Publication date2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0046-3663 • E-ISSN: 2153-3873
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3178760
PMID17985490
OpenAlexW2415571232
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited1

This article focuses on anti-abortion discourse and legislation in Kazakhstan where like Russia the number of abortions rose steadily during the 1920s. Increasing economic strain growing awareness of the availability of surgical abortion and changing morals contributed to this increase. Thus the very success of legalized abortion led to its downfall as women took their reproductive capabilities into their own hands and came into conflict with the states pronatalist population agenda. Abortion was depicted as a threat to womens physical well-being that could lead to infertility to an era when Soviet leaders needed an expanding workforce and military. The state began to circulate anti-abortion propaganda even before it enacted the 1936 abortion ban. However the state did not ban abortion entirely but made it legal only in cases when pregnancy is a threat to the mothers life. As part of the states drive to increase population it furthered its pronatalist agenda by instructing the public about the political significance of procreation and the ills of abortion. In conclusion the Soviet governments pronatalist policies demonstrate the way in which the state legitimated its power in part through the issue of womens health and reproduction

Abortion · Ethnic group · Patriotism · Political science · Pregnancy · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Soviet and Russian History

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub