Photo: Stephanie Schoell
On November 11, 1947, 24-year-old Sheli V, together with her husband Itzig, her two-year-old daughter Lydia and her mother Sofia, arrived in Vienna. The family came from Iaşi, Romanian, which is notorious for an anti -Semitic massacre. » The Holocaust survivor is one of the many women, of whom Sylvia Köchl in her book “Abbey abortion. Women’s poverty, unwanted pregnancies and illegal demolition »told. Furthermore, it can be experienced in case history: shortly after her arrival in Vienna, in transit to Israel/Palestine, Sheli V. notes that she is pregnant. She does not see any situation to hold another child. In the absence of other options, she undergoes – the advice of a p and a p and Displaced Persons Below-for a usual form of self-striking: “I bought myself … in a pharmacy hypermangan crystals and, in the evening before going to bed, led her with his finger as deep as possible.” The next morning she will be admitted to the hospital at the instigation of her husband, where she is anything but safe: “The hospital reimbursed a” injury ad “in which a” very highly bled patient ‘, a deep crack in the uterus and tissue residues were mentioned after an abortus. ” Apparently, in addition to the hypermangan estimate, Sheli V had also introduced a pointed object and thus injured her uterus. For her luck, she was able to leave the newly founded Israel and thus miss the prosecution – as before by her murder by the Nazis.
Focus on litigation
“Crime Abuse” combines court files from the time when abortions in Austria were still criminalized – as is well known, with concrete case stories by those affected in 1974. The contemporary reference is also made, for example by the chronology “While I work on this book”, in which, in addition to many tightening of the situation, it is important! – the successful feminist struggles are called. Köchl also formulates the central concern of the book: You are interested in “primarily poor people in the time of illegality of abortions, while good contraceptives were still missing (or were not affordable for them), with unwanted pregnancies. I also wanted to know who these abraders were who took on their proverbial kitchen tables – and how they did it at all. »
Against the background of this economic -critical question, it quickly becomes clear when reading the book: While the criminalization of abortions means all women, they meet women with special hardness. While bourgeois women were generally able to go to doctors and had overall resources to survive the procedure, for poor women there were often “even the tariffs of midwives and they had to fall back on offers of medical loans or (senseless to dangerous) self -experiments.” The danger of the intervention rose proportional to the falling costs – which of course hardly stopped a pregnant person without financial means of canceling an unwanted pregnancy.
More than 80 percent of the German population support the legality of abortions, among women it is almost 90 percent.
In dealing with the causes of pregnancy, as Köchl explains to him, bourgeois society is once again evident. It is only logical that the evidence of this comes from the area of the judiciary: “The language of the files”, according to the apt title of the first chapter, is clear in this regard. The law enforcement, as Köchl repeatedly emphasizes, is an absolute male domain in the time examined, from the male “poor lawyers” to the judges and police officers. Law and judiciary are central pillars of state repression and produce knowledge of rule par excellence. Nevertheless, the files of criminal processes document facts about those affected, which are otherwise not necessarily recorded; This is almost paradoxically especially for marginalized and poor people: “Court files are particularly suitable as a source of research in social and women’s history that” deals with the everyday life of “little woman”, quotes Swiss historian Annamarie Ryter. It can be assumed here: this is still the case today.
The lie of the “polarization”
Also of relevance for our present: Köckl’s examination period includes the time of National Socialism in Austria and thus documents the fascist use of female reproductive ability. Unsurprisingly, this turns out to be particularly cruel, the socio -chauvinistic stigmatization was drastically – request for denunciations, attribution of “anti -sociality” and so on – and the punishments for everyone involved draconically. In “an abortion procedure of the SG Vienna from 1944”, the accused “even threatened the death penalty”. While the Nazi impression of the abortion laws continues (keyword deadline solution), the second women’s movement fought a social and legal liberalization; In the mid -1970s, access to abortions in Austria (as well as in the FRG) was significantly expanded.
But Patriarchal-authoritarian times have long since broke out, and that is not possible without hard access to the reproductive self-determination of women. Today’s rights, in the Bundestag, for example, by Friedrich Merz (CDU), blocks decriminalization with the claim that the topic of abortion “polarizes” the voters. This is a smooth lie. In reality, this is likely to be one of the few questions in which there is a quasi social agreement. A representative study by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMBFJ) on the subject of pregnancy abortion from 2024: More than 80 percent of the German population support the legality of abortions, among women it is almost 90 percent. To be outraged by this discrepancy would be born – after all, it is the highlight of representative democracy that the real needs of the population have no influence on parliamentary politics. Here, however, it can be seen from the fact that the state considers the reproductive self -determination of women as a genuine threat – and not only the rights, but also SPD, FDP and Greens, all of which have been captured on the “deadline solution” for decades.
In view of the importance that the access to the female reproductive ability for the state, the following-positively surprising-results of the BMBFJ study almost already accepts: “Around 75 percent also find that interruptions should no longer be regulated in the penal code in the future.” In fact, everyone should make it clear that the topic of abortion ultimately is concerned with the entire population. For a patriarchal order, it must be stated that CIS men have to expect the least direct interference with their personal freedom. But Köchl’s case stories show that they are also affected in case of doubt – for example, if another child is to be taken care of due to the abortion ban, or if the partner falls ill or dies due to an incorrectly executed termination of pregnancy.
Fascist reproductive policy
By the way, according to the BMBFJ, the greatest supporters of repressive abortion laws are the super rich – a statistical size in which birth control may once again show themselves clearly as a special interest. And the AfD is hardly so clear in the case of hardly any topic as the ultra -riatal party, which it is in reality, which is often obscured by the personnel Alice Weidel. The “German Ärzteblatt” warns in November 2024: “The alternative for Germany wants to massively restrict the right to abortions. … According to this, abortions should only be allowed ›in the case of criminological or medical indication‹, it says – for example after rapes or in cases in which the health of the mother is at risk. Instead, the AfD wants to establish a ›welcome culture for children‹. »
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All of this comes from that Playbook the religious right, which has long since taken over the rule in the United States-as a weighty block of rule within Trump administration. It remains to be seen how this would develop in Germany, where the evangelicals do not form almost powerful social faction. In any case, a qualitative jump in the complete delegitimization of abortions was achieved in the United States in 2024: While in Austria of the 20th century, as can be seen from Köchl’s files, there is already talk of a “body fruit” on all sides, the embryo is already granted an independent personal status in some US states (“Fetal Personality”). This is a psychologically manipulative process that also allows the pregnant person’s complete disenfranchisement. Is the state dealing with abortions something like a water level indicator for the departure of fascism? I have to write: We will see.
Sylvia Köchl: «Crime Abortion. Women’s poverty, unwanted pregnancies and illegal demolition ». Mandelbaum-Verlag, Br., 254 pages, € 22.
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