Communism and Uteruses

Bonus Episode #3 of 20. There is something fascinating about the history of reproductive rights, contraception, and abortion in every country and ideology that we've looked at in our women's reproductive rights series. This week we're turning to the impact of Communism on these issues, particularly in China and the Soviet Union. Here we have the complete range of reproductive control extremes - from hyper pro-natalist policies and criminalization of birth control and abortion in both China and the USSR; to the Soviet Union's provision and regulation of abortion while simultaneously paying for extensive maternal support programming; to China's one child policy, which included forced abortion and sterilization in an attempt to get control over an overpopulation problem. Averill and Marissa discuss all of these nuances and more in this episode on the impact of Communism on uteruses. For the full transcript and bibliography for this episode, visit digpodcast.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices