También es importante saber de qué se está hablando cuando alguien dice "se ha prohibido X". Se tiene que conocer ese X. La supuesta super progresista ley destruida por un supuesto giro de Stalin, argumentado diciendo que era "conservador y nacionalista ruso amigo de la iglesia ortodoxa", ni tan siquiera era del agrado de Lenin. La legalización del aborto jamás fue introducida como un "derecho en defensa de la mujer soviética". Así lo explica Pat Sloan en su obra Soviet Democracy (1937):
"A matter which has raised considerable doubts in the minds of many protagonists of sex-equality in this country is the law, passed in 1936, making abortion illegal except in cases where it is justified by consideration for a woman's health or the danger of hereditary disease. This change in the law has been treated as an attack on sex-equality.
It is of the greatest importance in this connection, to refer back to the text of the original law which legalised abortion in Soviet Russia in 1921. It is important to note that in this law not a word was said about sex-equality, and the right to have an abortion was never put forward as a fundamental right of the Soviet woman. On the contrary, abortion was treated as a social evil, but an evil which was likely to be less harmful when practised legally than when carried out under conditions of secrecy. Here is part of the text of the original law permitting abortion:
'During the past decades the number of women resorting to artificial discontinuation of pregnancy has grown both in the West and in this country. The legislation of all countries combats this evil by punishing the woman who chooses to have an abortion and the doctor who performs it. Without leading to favourable results, this method of combating abortion has driven the operation underground and made the woman a victim of mercenary and often ignorant quacks who make a profession of secret operations. As a result, up to 50 per cent of such women are infected in the course of the operation, and up to 4 per cent of them die.
'The Workers' and Peasants' Government is conscious of this serious evil to the community. It combats this evil by propaganda against abortions among working women. By working for Socialism, and by introducing the protection of maternity and infancy on an extensive scale, it feels assured of achieving the gradual disappearance of this evil. But as moral survivals of the past and the difficult economic conditions of the present still compel many women to resort to this operation. . .' it is allowed in State hospitals.
The essential feature of this law is that it was based on 'difficult economic conditions,' and was of a temporary nature. The right to abortion was never introduced as one of the rights of Soviet women, to be enjoyed in all circumstances. It was considered an 'evil,' and was introduced as a makeshift to combat the serious mortality rate from illegal abortions carried out under unsatisfactory conditions. There is evidence that, at the present time, owing to the increased knowledge of contraceptives on the one hand and the growing sense of economic security on the other, women will not now practise abortion in this way, and that therefore the permissive law is no longer necessary in the interests of health. Abortion in Soviet legislation has always been regarded primarily as a question of health, not of equality. Since thousands of women have been neglecting the use of contraceptives because they could obtain an abortion, the legality of the less satisfactory method of discontinuing pregnancy has actually to some extent prevented more satisfactory methods from being used of avoiding pregnancy altogether."
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Entrar pp. 125-126
Aquí el documento (la ley que legalizaba el aborto) que se cita: Para ver el contenido hay que estar registrado.
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Entrar Es decir, ya en la misma "ley que legaliza el aborto" se está tratando el aborto como mal social a erradicar ("The legislation of all countries combats this evil. . .", "The Workers’ and Peasants’ Government is conscious of this serious evil to the community", "by introducing the protection of maternity and infancy on an extensive scale, it feels assured of achieving the gradual disappearance of this evil", etc). Lenin estaba vivo.
Así se describe antes de la "prohibición" cómo funcionaba la cuestión del aborto en 1932:
"Out of every hundred pregnant women who come to the Moscow clinics, from eighteen to twenty ask for abortions. If the woman asking for the abortion is healthy, economically up to standard, living in good social conditions, is not burdened by a large family and is not mentally deficient (when she would probably not ask for the abortion), the doctors and social workers all try to prove to her that she does not need the abortion and that it would be a social crime if she did not bring her child into the world, and that she would be endangering her own good health by such a step. If they cannot persuade her, the abortion is performed and it is considered important to do so, since a woman who will stand out against all such persuasion really does not want a child and is therefore unfit to have one.
[...] Of the number desiring abortion, they are usually able to persuade about half not to have it. The other half, who still think that they want abortion, are then sent to the State Hospital where they are again examined, this time much more thoroughly so that in reality the examination done in the Point of Consultation serves only as a preliminary one. However, the same methods used in the Point of Consultation are followed in the Hospital, i.e., home visits and medical examination as well as talks with the doctors and nurses. In the State Hospital they usually succeed in persuading five to ten out of twenty not to go through with it which means that in the long run the number of abortions is quite low considering the number of pregnancies."
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EntrarEste texto fue discutido en 1933: Para ver el contenido hay que estar registrado.
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EntrarY en esto quedó la "ley legalizadora del aborto" con la "prohibición" en 1936:
1. В связи с установленной вредностью абортов, запретить производство таковых как в больницах и специальных лечебных заведениях, так и на дому у врачей и на частных квартирах беременных.
Производство абортов допустить исключительно в тех случаях, когда продолжение беременности представляет угрозу жизни или грозит тяжелым ущербом здоровью беременной женщины, а равно при наличии передающихся по наследству тяжелых заболеваний родителей и только в обстановке больниц и родильных домов.Para ver el contenido hay que estar registrado.
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Entrar"1. In view of the proven harm of abortions, to forbid the performance of abortions whether in hospitals and special health institutions, or in the homes of doctors and the private homes of pregnant women.
The performance of abortions shall be allowed exclusively in those cases when the continuation of pregnancy endangers life or threatens serious injury to the health of the pregnant woman and likewise when a serious disease of the parents may be inherited, and only under hospital or maternity-home conditions."
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EntrarEs decir, se limita el aborto a cuestiones de riesgo para la embarazada y enfermedades graves hereditarias. No se prohibe, se limita. Además, ya hemos visto que desde Lenin el objetivo es combatir ese "mal social que es el aborto" y tender a su completa erradicación. Siguieron practicándose abortos bajo la nueva ley. Además con todos estos hechos y documentos oficiales se puede comprobar que lo que dijo Kollontay era absolutamente cierto: la nueva ley fue debatida en el seno de la sociedad socialista y luego aprobada, además siguiendo la tendencia ya empezada desde Lenin (la erradicación de ese mal social que su legalización nunca fue introducida como "conquista de un derecho de la mujer soviética").
Un detalle: curiosamente la "ley super reaccionaria de Stalin personal suya contra la ley anterior legalizadora super progresistas" va en pack y se encabeza con este título: "Sobre la prohibición del aborto, el aumento de las ayudas materiales para el parto, el establecimiento de las ayudas estatales a las familias numerosas, la ampliación de la red de casas de maternidad, guarderías y jardines de infancia, el fortalecimiento del castigo penal por el impago de la pensión alimenticia y sobre algunos cambios en la legislación sobre los divorcios". Vamos, que va todo en uno y no hay carácter reaccionario alguno.