Authors

Ivana Dobrivojevic Tomic¹;  ¹ Institute for contemporary history, Serbia

Discussion

Throughout this paper, the author shall try to shed light on the (opposed) position of gynaecologists and communist authorities regarding the abortion; bureaucratic procedure for termination of the pregnancy and the inhuman and to some extent even degrading treatment in hospitals and clinics towards the women who opted for abortion. The purpose of the paper is not to deny the partial success of the policy of socialist Yugoslavia in the field, but to reveal the problems and challenges the state and health system faced. The socialist authorities, lacking sufficient commitment to the systematic education of young people and the promotion of contraception, but also facing accumulated social problems, chose the easiest path and turned to the gradual liberalization of abortion. Therefore, the initial intention of the legislator was neither emancipatory nor it was in the function of giving women the right to freely decide about their bodies. Until 1969, it appeared as a strategy serving to repair the health and economic consequences of a large number of illegal abortions. The national family planning policies managed to decriminalize abortion and, through legalization, allow almost all abortions to be done in gynecological clinics, under optimal medical conditions. However, bigger improvements were impossible to make. The emancipatory and modernizing role of the state, in the field of family planning, just like in many other fields, ended halfway. Although official reports claimed that the termination of pregnancy after complete liberalization (1969), became more humane, the attitude of the medical staff towards women, judging by the results of one survey, was "humiliating". "You wait for hours, then they bring you in, all the women together, and the only thing they tell you is to take off your panties," explained one. "The nurses and doctors are humiliating you," said another, "and it's your own fault that you're in such a situation, which is also humiliating." Although there was a slight increase in the number of users of gynecology consulting services, especially during the 1970s, the use of modern contraceptives remained poor strongly influenced by the shortages at Yugoslav pharmacies. The attempts to introduce sexual education in schools provoked discomfort and resistance, and the introduction of topics on puberty, sexually transmitted diseases and protection against unintended pregnancy into biology curricula did not produce the desired results. It turned out that in the modernized Yugoslav society, sex and sexuality were and remained a taboo, and young people, who had already started an intimate relationship, could not obtain adequate knowledge either at school or at home. The number of adolescent pregnancies was increasing year in year out, and abortion remained one of the favored "methods" of family planning.