The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women between the 1970s and the 1980s

‘New eugenics,’ gender and sexuality: a global perspective on reproductive politics and sex education in Cold War Europe

“…Most eugenics-focused research on reproductive politics concerning Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe stops, however, with World War II, and only marginally refers to continuities in professionals and discourses from the second half of the 1940s onwards (Promitzer et al, 2011;Szegedi, 2012;Turda, 2013;Turda & Weindling, 2007). Also, while there is a rapidly growing body of scholarship on the state socialist history of sex education and reproductive politics, only recently have scholars revealed the (re)surfacing of eugenics following the end of World War II (Demény, 2018;Hahn, 2009;Kuře, 2018;Kuźma-Markowska, 2011;Lišková, 2018;Melegh, 2011;Prajerova, 2019;Shmidt, 2019;Šustrová, 2019;Szamosi, 2018;Szegedi, 2014;Varsa, 2017;Żok & Baum, 2018).…”

“…Concerning state socialist countries in Europe as well as countries further away from the Western European center, such as Greece, research on postwar eugenics has just begun (Barmpouti, 2019;Trubeta, 2013). Studies point to a number of similarities with Western trends in 'new eugenics' especially in human genetics, genetic counseling and family planning-related measures and practices (Barmpouti, 2019;Demény, 2018;Hahn, 2009;Kuře, 2018;Kuźma-Markowska, 2011;Melegh, 2011;Prajerova, 2019;Shmidt, 2019;Šustrová, 2019;Szamosi, 2018;Szegedi, 2014;Varsa, 2017;Żok & Baum, 2018).…”

“…Hašková and Dudová (2020) and Varsa (2020) discuss how family planning and related welfare measures applied the eugenic concept of 'healthy birth.' This translated into discouraging and hindering fertility among single women, the 'disabled,' and the poor and those seen to be 'asocial' and 'degenerate,' all of whose reproduction has been identified as 'unhealthy' (Kuźma-Markowska, 2011;Shmidt, 2019;Sokolová, 2008;Varsa, 2017). Through the association of these categories of people with Roma specific eugenic regulations, such as the sterilization law introduced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s allowed for race/ethnicity-based discriminatory practices.…”

“…Taking into consideration constructions of both gender and racial/ethnic difference has directed attention to previously overlooked aspects of postwar European history (Sokolová, 2008;Varsa, 2018). In combination with researching continuities in eugenic thought, intersectional research has drawn attention to racial differentiation in relation to Roma that resurfaced in several countries after World War II (Shmidt, 2019;Sokolová, 2008;Donert, 2017;Szamosi, 2018;Varsa, 2017, forthcoming). Accounting for the ways legal abortion was used to hinder Romani women's fertility alters the meaning of the liberalization of abortion in state socialist countries.…”