The Abortion – a Crime or Personal Right of Every Woman (the Сase of Sub-Russian Ukraine 19th – Beginning of the 20th centuries.)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to trace the evolution of the attitude of the authorities and the public (both in urban and rural areas) of sub-Russian Ukraine to abortion during the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. punishment for this crime. The methodology of research is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, systematization) and special-historical methods (historical-structural, constructive-genetic, historical-comparative) with the principles of historicism, objectivity, systemicity, verification. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in domestic and foreign historiography there was made an attempt to comprehensively consider the problem of abortion in the Russian Empire in the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. (the case of sub-Russian Ukraine), in particular, the peculiarities of the attitude to abortion by the state and the public were determined, a comparative analysis of the reasons for their commission, conditions and means of abortion, availability of such operations in rural areas and in modernized cities. Conclusions. The legislation of the Russian Empire considered abortion as a criminal offense, the punishment for which was quite severe, although with a tendency to liberalize (from exile to Siberia and beatings with a whip to imprisonment for several years). Despite criminal liability, at the beginning of the 20-th century, abortions have become an integral part of the daily lives of the cities. Punishment for such “crimes” was infrequent, mostly only when the case gained considerable media coverage or when the operation resulted in the patient's death. Attitudes toward abortion in cities and villages were different: traditional Ukrainian culture condemned abortion as a crime against the unborn child, an attempt on moral norms and values, and a social hierarchy. In cities, attitudes toward abortion were more pragmatic; such operations were most often performed for material reasons, in the case of the lower class, or to avoid shame and to entertain (concealment of the fact of extramarital pregnancy by married nobles, etc. “new women”). On the eve of the World War I, the advanced public advocated the decriminalization of abortion.