Lessons from the Past: The Right to Abortion in Three Pictures Cover Image

Lessons from the Past: The Right to Abortion in Three Pictures
Lessons from the Past: The Right to Abortion in Three Pictures

Author(s): Jelena Milinković
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Gender history, Health and medicine and law, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949)
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; right to abortion; Yugoslavia (1918–1941); Ženski pokret (1920–1938); Julka Hlapec Djordjević; Andjelija Lazarević;

Summary/Abstract: The starting point in this paper is the current situation in several countries regarding the prohibition or permission of abortion. In parallel with the pandemic, i.e., the COVID-19 crisis in European countries, there is also a crisis of women’s rights and freedoms. Within the already won rights and freedoms, and as a consequence of the traditionalization of state policies, the right to abortion is most endangered during crises. To show what the struggle for women’s rights might look like, an example from the past is taken: the struggle of Yugoslav women for the right to abortion during the 1920s and 1930s. Three aspects are analyzed: 1) the legal regulation of the right to abortion, 2) the discussion regarding this issue in the Ženski pokret [Women’s Movement] (1920–1938) journal, and 3) the topic of abortion in literature.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 1-22
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: English