Reproductive Politics in Twentieth-Century France and Britain

The most reliable guardian of your health: Controversies on the condom's acceptance in the 20th century

The history of the condom, although repressed or bypassed throughout the centuries, represents an important part of our cultural history. An historical overview on how the condom was perceived by Croatian physicians and how the pharmaceutical industry advertised condoms in the first half of the 20th century is provided. The contributions on contraception in Croatian medical bulletins, as well as the advertisements published in our professional pharmaceutical journals established during the Interwar Period is discussed. Indeed, the condom was for the most part neglected either as a prophylactic or as a contraceptive among physicians and public health workers, despite epidemics of syphilis and the rise of socialized medicine. In conclusion, this paper is the first attempt to provide the history of condom in Croatia, discussing dominant attitudes toward contraception, prophylaxis of venereal diseases, the control of reproduction, and the ideologies about human sexuality.

The Influence of Abortion Law on the Frequency of Pregnancy Terminations-A Retrospective Comparative Study

Abortion law is one of the main factors influencing the number of abortions performed in a country. The study aimed to assess the influence of abortion law on the number of performed terminations with particular attention paid to pregnancy terminations due to fetal defects. The retrospective comparative analysis of statistical data included on the governmental websites of Poland and the UK was performed. The average of 190,733.1 terminations were performed in the United Kingdom in the years 2009–2018 with the average of 2820.9 due to fetal defects. At the same time the average of 858.6 terminations were performed in Poland with 820.7 due to fetal defects. Population size is the only significant predictor of the number of terminations in the United Kingdom. The increase in the number of deliveries and population in Poland was not linked to the increase in the overall number of terminations or terminations due to fetal defects. It might be due to the unavailability of pregnancy terminations in many places. The radicalization of abortion law exerts no influence on the decrease in the number of terminations due to fetal indications. The liberalization of abortion law promotes the increase in the number of terminations due to social indications.

The highly complex issue of conscientious objection to abortion: can the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling Grimmark v. Sweden redefine the notions of care before freedom of conscience?

PURPOSE

The article aims to elaborate on two recent European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decisions which have rejected, on grounds of non-admissibility, the appeals by two Swedish midwives who refused to carry out abortion-related services, basing their refusal on conscientious objection, and to expound upon the legal and ethical underpinnings and core standards applied to the framing process of such a ECtHR decision.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

By drawing upon relevant recommendations from international institutions, the authors have aimed to assess how the ECtHR rationale could affect the balance between CO and patient rights; searches have been conducted up until December 2020.

RESULTS

In both decisions the European Court has asserted that the right to exercise conscientious objection must give way to the protection of the right to health of women seeking to have an abortion.

CONCLUSIONS

ECtHR judges concluded that the failure to provide for a right to conscientious objection does not constitute, in fact, a violation of the more general right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, if provided for by a state law to protect the right to health. The legal ethical and social ramifications of such a decision are of enormous magnitude.

Doing and undoing nation through ART: a Franco-American comparison

This article explores a Franco-American comparison of assisted reproductive technology (ART), specifically as it relates to sex selection and cross-border reproduction. As a basis for comparison, the nation can materialize in the form of state structure just as much as in cultural-economic assemblages or ideologies that breach geopolitical boundaries. By juxtaposing many contrasts between the French and US contexts - departure versus destination country, highly regulated versus deregulated governance, medical versus social applications, and access (or lack thereof) via public versus private health insurance sectors - it may be difficult to imagine how these extremes occupy a common continuum of globalized market channels. I suggest that invisible or semi-visible reproductive practices along with ART governance provide an avenue to stake out or protect the 'French' way of being and doing ART just as much as they make the 'American' way simultaneously elusive and easy to appropriate. Ultimately, both the French and American approaches to ART collude in the institutionalization of globalized markets. Through the case of cross-border and (sex) selective ART, it is possible to see how both the French and the Americans are involved in the undoing and doing of nation via ART as global assemblage.

Contraception and Catholicism in the Twentieth Century: Transnational Perspectives on Expert, Activist and Intimate Practices

This special issue uses Catholicism as a thread to bring together five contributions to the transnational history of contraception. The articles, which cover examples from Western and East-Central Europe, East Africa and Latin America, all explore the complex interplay between users and providers of birth control in contexts marked by prevalence of the Catholic religion and/or strong political position of the Catholic Church. In the countries examined here, Brazil, Belgium, Poland, Ireland and Rwanda, Catholicism was the majority religion during the different moments of the long twentieth century the authors of this special issue focus on. Using transnationalism as a perspective to examine the social history of the entanglements between Catholicism and contraception, this special issue seeks to underscore the ways in which individuals and organisations used, adapted and contested local and transnational ideas and debate around family planning. It also examines the role of experts and activist groups in the promotion of family planning, while paying attention to national nuances in Catholic understandings of birth control. The contributions shed light on the motivations behind involvement in birth control activism and expertise, its modus operandi, networking strategies and interactions with men and women demanding contraceptive information and technology. Moreover, through the use of oral history, as well as other print sources such as women's magazines, this collection of articles seeks to illustrate 'ordinary' men and women's practices in the realm of reproductive health.