Demographic aspects of abortion in Eastern Europe : a study with special reference to the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Date
1995
Authors
Stloukal, Libor
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Abstract
During the post-World War II period, widespread resort to induced abortion
became a well-known peculiarity of the demographic situation in Eastern
European countries. The generally high East European abortion levels resulted
from the interplay of several determinants. This study focuses first on population
policies and the broader socio-economic and demographic conditions that
characterized Eastern Europe during the period 1950-90. It is demonstrated that
the emergence of the high-abortion regime coincided demographically with the
final stage of secular fertility decline in the region, and politically with the
establishment of Soviet-style socialism — a system typified by egalitarian social
policies, low material standards of living, limited availability of contraceptives,
and policies suppressing personal autonomy and perpetuating inequality
between the sexes. Despite the many similarities of the countries under
consideration, however, abortion levels differed regionally as well as temporally,
reflecting local mores and the effects of country-specific policies related to family
and birth control.
With this in mind, using data from official registration sources, the study goes
onto examine levels, trends, and selected demographic aspects of abortion in
the Czech and Slovak populations, applying both period- and cohort-specific
modes of analysis. The findings show that the dominant force behind the resort
to abortion was the desire to prevent second and higher-order births in families,
whereas its use to space childbearing or avoid it altogether was much less
typical. Changes in abortion legislation generated some transitory behavioural
responses, but had only limited effect on abortion patterns in the long term.
There were substantial differences in the resort to abortion between Czech and
Slovak women; this indicates that factors such as socio-economic status,
religion, respect for certain social norms, and attitudes to contraception were
powerful determinants of reproductive and birth-preventing behaviour. Overall
fertility levels were not unaffected by changes in abortion legislation, but the net
effects were less dramatic than a simple trend analysis would suggest because
the observed fertility declines were partly produced by differences in
childbearing patterns between cohorts.
The study concludes by speculating about the broader institutional and sociopsychological
correlates of abortion in the formerly communist-ruled countries of
Eastern Europe, and by suggesting an agenda for future research.
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