Critical Reflections on the Historiography of Abortion Rights in Hungary

Main Article Content

Fanni Svégel

Abstract

This reflection provides critical comments on the study Abortion in the Kádár era. Decades of the Transformation of Pregnancy Prevention Methods, published in TNTeF 2022/2. First, I review the brief history of induced abortion regulation from the end of the 19th century and move on to explore misunderstandings about the Ratko era. Then I study the biopolitical control of the female body and the issue of sexual freedom in the Kádár-era. In closing, I offer a different frame in Hungarian scholarship. I argue that we might overcome the difficulties of historical investigation of the abortion question in the Kádár regime by grasping the diversity of historical-social realities and properly apprehending the differences between de jure and de facto conditions.

Article Details

How to Cite
Svégel , Fanni. 2023. “Critical Reflections on the Historiography of Abortion Rights in Hungary”. Interdisciplinary EJournal of Gender Studies 13 (2):205-21. https://iskolakultura.hu/index.php/tntef/article/view/45011.
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Responses
Author Biography

Fanni Svégel , Eötvös Loránd University

Svégel, Fanni is a PhD student in the History Doctoral School of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. She is an ethnographer, writing on the history of reproductive decision-making and violence against women in 20th-century Hungary. Her main research interest lies in the differing trajectories, continuities, and discontinuities of reproduction in 20th-century East-Central Europe, as well as the history of midwifery, family planning, and pregnancy termination. Her doctoral research focuses on the theories and practices of reproductive work. She is also member of MTA-BTK Lendület (Momentum) Research Group, studying work in socialist Hungary. E-mail: fanni.svegel@hotmail.com