Sin, Crime, Law: A History of Abortion in Europe

The nineteenth century marked the history of abortion in modern Europe by formalizing its definitive legislative and religious condemnation. During the first half of the twentieth century, attitudes toward abortive practices combined the pro-natalist preoccupations of the French and Italian governments to take a harsher stance during the Second World War, while in Germany such practices became a tool to support the racial and eugenic policies of Nazism. The first signs of change appeared in the mid-1950s, when women’s and feminist movements began to take an interest in the issue. Beginning in the 1970s, “free and freely available” abortion was central to the demands of second-wave European feminism, profoundly updating the public debate on the issue, and prompting changes to laws and customs. During the final decades of the century, the decriminalization laws adopted in numerous European countries eliminated the transgression under certain conditions, but did not make abortion the right asserted by feminist movements.