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On 8 November, 1920, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to make abortion on demand in the first three months of pregnancy legal. Whilst the right to abortion and contraception was thus won, it was assumed that the need would gradually disappear as social conditions improved. Below, Leonora Lloyd examines what has happened since in the Soviet Union and the other Eastern European workers' states; in the next issue she considers the situation in China and the other degenerated workers states.
Because Lenin and the Bolsheviks had not fully escaped the grip of sexist ideology, it does not seem to have occurred to them that motherhood -for example - even under the best conditions, might not be every woman's choice. However, they remained the staunchest defenders of women's rights, including the right of women to organise to change their conditions and fight sexism.
The destruction of these rights was to be the work of a caste of privileged bureaucrats growing up within the workers' state which - under the leadership of Stalin - destroyed the Bolshevik Party itself.
1936 It was in 1936 that the first Moscow trial launched a mass terror aimed at consolidating the political power of the bureaucracy. And it was in 1936 that Stalin imposed reactionary legislation making abortion a criminal offence except for compelling medical and eugenic reasons.
Anyone pertorming an illegal abortion was subject to imprisonment; the woman herself could be fined if the first offence was repeated. There were also a number of measures to encourage motherhood. The effect was to increase the birth rate from 32.3 per 1000 in 1936, to 38.7 in 1938. By 1941 the rate dropped to 31.2 This was due to a massive increase in illegal abortions. In the 1960s, a Leningrad gynecologist recalled that 70% of the beds in his department during this period had been taken up by women suffering from their atter-effects.
1955 In November 1955, the Kruschev regime, as part of a series of measures designed to secure it a base of popular support, abolished this law, It is known that the authorities were worried by the wide-spread use of illegal terminations. Under the new laws, women could have abortions up to 12 weeks, and thereafter with special permission if they had not had one in the previous 6 months.
It must be remembered that this was before the days of the pill and IUD. In fact. there were no effective forms of contraception available. The effect of the new legislation did not alter the birth rate significantly, so it may be assumed that legal abortions largely replaced illegal ones.
Abortion has obviously remained an important means of fertility control. A Soviet researcher calculated that in 1960 there were 1.6 abortions per live births and by 1963, 2.5 to 3. Thus, perhaps only a quarter of conceptions ended in birth.
In another piece of research, it is noted that of 400 women married in 1960, only 26% had had no abortions by 1965. 14% had more than 2. The picture is generally one of women using abortion as the prime method of birth control. By the late 60s and in the 70s even more so, official attitudes were hardening against abortions.
Women were warned about complications although published data did not bear this out. It now seems. although evidence is difficult to obtain, that women are being encouraged to use contraceptives-mostly the condom, manufactured in the Soviet Union, and of poor quality; use of the pill is discouraged.
So while women still use abortion on a large scale (13 million a year). the Government seeks to discourage it with both emphasis on the dangers involved and attempts to make motherhood more attractive. However, the biggest barrier to this is the great reliance on married women in the labour force. Moreover, there is as yet little socialisation of housework and a sharp sexual inequality in carrying out domestic tasks. This is not surprising given the open sexism of much of the regime's popular press. (This has been detailed in the pamphlet Women's Place in the USSR).
OTHER COUNTRIES In the 50s, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia followed Russia's example. They enacted laws which were then the most liberal in Europe. In Poland, for instance, abortions are obtainable if the woman faces a difficult situation, and the woman must be given contraceptive advice.
In Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, a committee of three must approve the woman's written application. In Hungary the most liberal law of all was enacted in this period. Women had to be granted termination if 'the applicant insists on the termination of pregnancy. However, in 1973 Hungary followed Rumania (1966) and Bulgaria (1968) in restricting women's abortion rights.
In Rumania, the attack has been the most cynical and extreme, so that abortion is only allowable on medical grounds, in cases of rape or for eugenic reasons (incest, etc.)
ILLEGAL ABORTIONS The change was motivated both by the falling birth rate and by the dangers in abortion. However, the latter was not borne out by any of the published data! The birth rate in Rumania followed the Russian pattern -it rose from 12.8 per 1000 in 1966, to 39.9 in 1967 — only to go down again, reaching 18.8 in 1972. Meanwhile the incidence of illegal abortions, indicated by complications admitted to hospital has risen sharply.
Of all the bureaucratised workers" states, Yugoslavia is exceptional in encouraging the use of the pill. By 1972 half of all women practicing contraception used this method. However there is great uneveness in its usage - depending on the availability of facilities - and this is reflected in highly varying birth rates in different parts of the country. The figures reach a high of 39.6 and go to as low as 14.6 according to 1963-67 figures.
The only post-capitalist society in which abortion remains totally illegal is Albania.
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### WOMEN'S CHOICE
Perhaps one of the most interesting discussions for socialist stems from our demand that women must have the right to choose. Obviously population control takes on a different meaning in a non-capitalist state. The existence of a planned economy, relatively free from the fluctuations of the world capitalist market, means that the ideal size of population can be seen as related to the resources available and the real needs of the mass of the population. In this situation, the expected rate of growth of the productive forces and the rising expectations of the population would be considered. However, even in a workers state, the final decision must rest in the woman's hands. The question of population level ability of the revolutionary party its policies through educational their own privileged position. would then be posed in terms of the to carry out an intensive fight for campaigns, and wide-ranging debates.
In the USSR and the Eastern Eus: opean countries today quite a different situation exists. Rational planning with the ultimate decision in the hands of women is not the order of the day. This is rooted in the fact that these states are not democratically organised, but are controlled by a bureaucratic group whose policies -are based on one consideration the drive to consolidate and maintain Thus, although many of these countries have had relatively liberal laws in the period immediately foland lectures, and will receive all copies of lowing the regime of Stalin, the case with which women can actually utilise facilities arising from these laws fluctuates wildly. The common feature of all these states is the attempts of the regimes to ensure that the ultimate control over women's reproductive lives is not in their own hands. With no independent women's movements, the only recourse for women will once again be illegal terminations.
communism versus stalinism no. 4 A WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE U.S.S.R. preface by Branka Magas IMG 25p NATIONAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE