Abstract
This chapter outlines the general disconnect of the state from the abortion discourse and the influence of the political situation on the direction of the discourse. A juxtaposition is observed between state, Church, physicians and population in which Church and state, for much of the observed period in the twentieth century, were opposed to abortion, whereas physicians and the population were discreetly engaged in it. Many physicians supported abortion as a social necessity. Very few rejected it outright. Still, a free discourse was not always possible; during dictatorships and nationalist or socially conservative governments the climate did not favour a liberal discussion and there was silence from all except the Church, which would become most vocal in its opposition to abortion at those times.
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Notes
- 1.
Michael Eliou (15 September 1925) ‘E Enishysis tes Zotikotetos tes Fyles mas’, Ygeia, 2(18), 262. However, the author makes it clear that abortion was not the only reason for the very small number of children that some couples had.
- 2.
Haralampos Tzortzopoulos (1926) Sholia eis ton Ishyonta Ellenikon Poinikon Nomon, Teuhos 1, Egklemata kata tes Zoes kai tou Somatos (Athens: Athena), p. 179.
- 3.
Tryfon K. Andrianakos (1 May 1930) ‘Organosis tes proleptikes iatrikes pros katapolemesin tes tehnetes ektroseos kai prostasian tes teknogonias kai tes metrotetos (anakoinosis en to A Panellenion Synedrion Ygieines)’, Ellenike Iatrike, 4(10), 1026.
- 4.
Andrianakos, ‘Organosis’, 1026.
- 5.
Anonymous (3/4 December 1928) ‘To programma tou S.O.G’, Sosialistike Zoe, cited in Iris Aude-Kalkane (1997) Mia antartissa tes Poles sten taragmene Athena. Athena Gaitanou-Gianniou 1880–1952 (Athens: ELIA), p. 60. S.O.G was created in October 1919 and represented the female expression of the Greek socialist movement. It became a significant part of the feminist movement, one that focused not only on the vote but more significantly on social issues that affected women’s everyday lives (Anonymous, ‘To programma’, pp. 54–65).
- 6.
Richard Allen Soloway (1982) Birth Control and the Population Question in England, 1877–1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press), p. 316.
- 7.
Apostolos Doxiadis (12 September 1930) ‘E These tes Gynaikos’, Eleutheron Vema, pp. 1–2.
- 8.
Doxiadis, ‘E These’, 1–2.
- 9.
D. Saratses (3 February 1931) ‘E Anthropotes ekfylizetai?’, Eleutheron Vema, p. 3.
- 10.
Anonymous (4 October 1930) ‘E prolepsis ton Genneseon’, Ekklesia, 40, 325.
- 11.
Anonymous, ‘E prolepsis’, 325.
- 12.
Mark Mazower (1997) ‘Policing the Anti-Communist state in Greece, 1922–1974’ in Mark Mazower (ed.) The policing of politics in the twentieth century (Providence: Berghahn), p. 138, citing D. Livieratos (1987) Koinonikoi agones sten Ellada (1927–1931) (Athens: n.p.), p. 29.
- 13.
Mazower, ‘Policing’, pp. 138–9.
- 14.
Anonymous (27 March 1931) ‘Apergia peines Germanidos iatrou’, Rizospastes, 14(6854), p. 2. The same newspaper at later dates discussed the liberal law on abortion in Soviet Union and subsequently its restriction (Anonymous (31 December 1932) ‘The issue of abortions’, O Neos Rizospastes, 2(462), p. 1; Anonymous (12 August 1935) ‘Sovietikes apanteseis sta erotimata ton ergaton olou tou kosmou’, Rizospastes, 5(450/7885), p. 2; Anonymous (30 May 1936), ‘Ste Sovietike Enose: Zoeres syzeteseis gia to Zetema tes ektroses’, Rizospastes, 6(669/9013), p. 2). In both occasions, the presentation of the Soviet situation was shaped to respond to the Greek readership rather than ‘trouping’ Soviet progressiveness. If anything, there was much more space dedicated in this newspaper on the revoking of the liberal abortion policy in the late 1930s. There were, for example, articles on Rizospastes on the 30 May 1936, 9 June 1936, 18 June 1936, 23, June 1936 and 28 June 1936.
- 15.
Cornelia Usborn (2007) Cultures of Abortion in Weimar Germany (New York: Berghahn), p. 3. Anonymous (16 March 1931) ‘Ta ethe tes epohes mas. E polekrotos ypothesis tou Dros Volf. Eine dikaioma tes gynaikas e ektrosis?’, E Proia, pp. 1, 5.
- 16.
Georgios K. Zouraris (24 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis e Apeleutherotikon Kinema?’, Makedonia, 22(6955), p. 1. Zouraris was a physician and sexologist.
- 17.
Zouraris, ‘Einai Egklema’, pp. 1, 5.
- 18.
See, for example, N. Garakes (29 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis?’, Makedonia, 22(6959), p. 1. Garakes was a physician.
- 19.
Emm. Perres (15 January 1932) ‘E ektrosis os koinonike anagke’, Makedonia, 23(6974), p. 3 (Perres was a physician); Th. P. Theofylaktos (4 January 1932) ‘Prepei na ekteleitai e ektrosis?’, Makedonia, 23(6963), p. 1; Hristodoulos A. Kampoures (1933) Therapeutikai kai Koinonikai Endeikseis tes Tehnetes Ektroseos (Athens: Georgiou Vasileiou), p. 6.
- 20.
On a description of such a situation in fiction see the chilling short story ‘To pistoma’ (Konstantinos Theotokes (1982) Diegemata (Korfiatikes istories) (Athens: Kimena), originaly published in 1898). Plenty of real life stories in the newspapers also described such situations. See, for example, Efi Avdella (2002) Dia Logous Times. Via, Synaisthemata kai Axies se mia Metemfyliake Ellada (Athens: Nefeli), though this monograph focuses on the 1950s and honour killings. Newspapers were full of reports of such honour killings in inter-war and post-war Greece. See, for example, Anonymous (16 March 1931) ‘Fonos dia logous times eis ton Peiraia’, E Proia, p. 5.
- 21.
See, for example, Kampoures, Therapeutikai, pp. 6–7, 28–9; Theofylaktos, ‘Prepei’, p. 1.
- 22.
This position remained in force at least until the end of the 1970s and seems to have been widely—though not by all—accepted and consistently practiced irrespective of the law since rates of illegitimacy remained extremely low throughout the twentieth century in Greece. See also Demetres Siatopoulos (1949) E Gynaika kai ta Koinonika tes Zetemata kato apo to Fos tes Aletheias (Athens: Maurides), pp. 13–31 and Konstantinos Metropoulos (1954) Ygieιne tes Egkuou (Athens: Papademetriou), p. 137 expressing similar sentiments though the later clarifying that no more than one ‘mistake’ should be permitted to each unmarried woman. Perres, ‘E ektrosis, p. 3; I. Pontikopoulou (10 January 1932) ‘E ektrosis einai egklema?’, Makedonia, 23(6969), p. 1; Theofylaktos, ‘Prepei’, p. 1.
- 23.
Panteles D. Mpertsekas (1945) Oi Kindynoi kai ai Epiplokai tes Amvloseos kai ta Iatrodikastika Provlemata Autes (Athens: Euth. Hristodoulou), pp. 66–7.
- 24.
Mpertsekas, Oi Kindynoi, pp. 70–1.
- 25.
Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 28.
- 26.
Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 27.
- 27.
Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 28.
- 28.
Andrianakos, ‘Organosis’, pp. 1025–34; Jacques D. Zancarol (1934) L’evolution des Idées sur l’avortement Provoque. Etude Morale et Juridique (Paris: Librairie Lipschutz). In the 1960s see N. Louros (1967) ‘L’Influence des Avortements sur le Problème Demographique de la Grèce’, Academy of Athens, 42.
- 29.
Garakes , ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis?’, p. 1.
- 30.
Perres , ‘E ektrosis’, p. 3.
- 31.
Anonymous (23 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis e Apeleutherotikon Kinema? Dyo Endiaferonta Arthra’, Makedonia, 22(6954), p. 1; Zouraris (24 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema’, p. 1; Georgios K. Zouraris (28 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis e Apeleutherotikon Kinema?’, Makedonia, 22(6958), p. 1; Hr. Papatheofilou (6 January 1932) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis? E Gnome tou Hr. Papatheofilou’, Makedonia, 23(6965), p. 1 (the author was a gynaecologist); Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 6.
- 32.
Kampoures, Therapeutikai, pp. 24–6; Mpertsekas, Oi Kindynoi, p. 72; Zouraris (24 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis?’, p. 1.
- 33.
Mpertsekas, Oi Kindynoi, pp. 77–8. Similarly, Kampoures acknowledges the strength of maternal instinct in all women, whether they chose to abort or not (Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 26).
- 34.
Mpertsekas, Oi Kindynoi, p. 83.
- 35.
N.S. Louros (21 June 1930) ‘E prostasia tes teknogonias’, Ergasia, 1(24), 15–16.
- 36.
S.Z. (January 1932) ‘Nomimes ektroseis—to dikaioma ton ptohon na men kanoun paidia’, Socialistike Zoe, 4(39), cited in Aude-Kalkane, Mia antartissa, p. 113.
- 37.
Mpertsekas, Oi Kindynoi, pp. 83–4, citing Doxiadis but without providing the full reference.
- 38.
Anonymous (23 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis?’, 1; Zouraris (24 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema’, p. 1; Zouraris (28 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema’, p. 1; Hr. Papatheofilou (6 January 1932) ‘Is abortion a crime? The opinion of Hr. Papatheofilou’, Makedonia, 23(6965), p. 1 (the author was a gynaecologist); Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 6.
- 39.
Mpertsekas, Oi Kindynoi, p. 86.
- 40.
Metropoulos, Ygieιne, p. 138.
- 41.
Metropoulos, Ygieιne, p. 138.
- 42.
I. Zagkarolas (1951) ‘To Egklema tes amvloseos eis ton neon Poinikon Kodika’, Poinika Hronika, 1(1), 495, cited in E. Symeonidou-Kastanidou (1995) Egklemata kata tes Zoes (Thessalonike: Sakkoula), p. 764.
- 43.
Vasilios Valaoras, A. Polychronopoulou and D. Trichopoulos (1965) ‘Control of Family Size in Greece (The Results of a Field Survey)’, Population Studies, 18(3), 269; Vasilios Valaoras, A. Polychronopoulou and D. Trichopoulos (1969) ‘Greece: Postwar Abortion Experience’, Studies in Family Planning, 1(46), 10–16.
- 44.
F. Kavvadias (1 April 1967) ‘Symperasmata apo ten syzetese tes Ellen. Etairias Eugonikes. Zetountai … apogonoi’, Eleutheria, 23(6917), p. 3.
- 45.
Alexandra Barmpouti (2015) ‘Eugenics and Induced abortion in post-war Greece’, ACTAE historiae, medicinae, stomatologiae, pharmaciae, medecinae veterinariae, 34(1), 46–7.
- 46.
Anonymous (28 January 1967) ‘Ekatomyria paidia den erhontai ste zoe. H Germania egklematei … ’, Empros, 9(4), p. 7.
- 47.
Anonymous (18 April 1964) ‘Ena akome provlema tes epohes mas. E amvlosis einai egklema? Yparhoun hores opou o nomos ten anehetai e ten epitrepi ypo orous’, Empros, 70(16), p. 10.
- 48.
Kan Parman (3 May 1958) ‘Ai “statistikai” Kinsey’, Empros, 63(229), p. 3; Anonymous (25 February 1958) ‘“Egkymosyne, gennesis, ektrosis”. Apokalyptike ekthesis tou Institoutou Kinsey dia tas Amerikanidas’, Makedonia, 47(15313), p. 3.
- 49.
See, for example, Valaoras et al., ‘Greece’, 10–16; Valaoras et al., ‘Control’, 265–78.
- 50.
Athanas. Vettou Danielides (1924) E Zoe ton Neon (Athens: Paraskeua Leone), p. 171.
- 51.
A. Herbert Gray (31 December 1931) ‘Abortions or fertility regulation’, Makedonia, 22(6971), p. 1.
- 52.
Serafeim Papakostas (1947) To Zetema tes teknogonias (To demografiko provlema apo hristianikes apopseos) 2nd edn (Athens: Adelfotes theologon ‘E Zoe’). Subsequent editions were published in 1957 and 1969.
- 53.
Alexandros Stauropoulos (1981) Demografiko Provlema, Oikogeneiakos Programmatismos kai Ektroseis. Theologike Proseggise (Athens: n.p.), p. 9.
- 54.
The author refers not only to Zoë when he makes the above comment, but he notes that Zoë was the most widely known organisation of this kind (Vasilios N. Makrides (2004) ‘Orthodoxy in the service of anticommunism: The religious organization Zoë during the Greek Civil War’ in Philip Carabott and Thanasis D. Sfikas (eds), The Greek Civil War. Essays on a conflict of exceptionalism and silences (Aldershot: Ashgate), p. 159).
- 55.
Papakosta, To Zetema, pp. 8–9.
- 56.
Papakosta, To Zetema, pp. 11–12, 59, quoting the teachings of Megas Vasileios. Interestingly, the physicians were not unified: a healthy discourse ensued and variation in opinions was expressed as to when ensoulment takes place. See also Epifanios Theodoropoulos (1986) Progamiaies Sheseis, Politikos Gamos, Amvloseis (Athens: Orthodoxos Typos), p. 65, citing the fact that the Greek Church celebrates the conception of, among others, the Virgin Mary exactly because it strongly believes that the human person exists from the moment of its conception.
- 57.
Papakosta, To Zetema, pp. 9–11.
- 58.
Dionysios Pyrros o Thettalos (1840) Egkolpion ton Iatron Etoi Praktike Iatrike, Periehousa ten Ylen tes Iatrikes, ten Farmakopoiian, ten Ygieinen, vol. 1, 1st edn 1831 (Athens: Aggelou Aggelidou), p. 241.
- 59.
Pyrros, Egkolpion, vol. 2, p. 241. Interestingly, Pyrros brings into the discussion the conception of Christ by Virgin Mary as supporting evidence for his position, exactly as Theodoropoulos did in 1986, supporting the opposite view (Pyrros, Egkolpion, vol. 2, p. 242; Theodoropoulos, Progamiaies Sheseis, p. 65).
- 60.
Papakosta, To Zetema, pp. 11–13. The same year that Papakostas published his book, Kampoures also published a volume on induced abortion, declaring from the start that ensoulment occurs upon conception (Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 4). Other physicians were advocating that, according to biology, the foetus ‘was not a human but rather a pile of cells’ (Zouraris (24 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema’, p. 1).
- 61.
Papakostas uses an exceptional number of references, almost all non-Greek and therefore perceived as modern (for example, Charles Gore (1930) The Prevention of Conception Commonly Called Birth Control, 3rd edn (London: A.R. Mowbray); Encyclical of Pious XI Gasti Connubii 1931).
- 62.
Papakosta, To Zetema, p. 17.
- 63.
Stauropoulos , Demografiko provlema, pp. 9–10.
- 64.
Meletios Galanopoulos Metropolites Kytheron (1969) Egkyklioi 537–680 (Kythera: n.p.), Egkyklios 660 (27 September 1968).
- 65.
Galanopoulos Metropolites Kytheron, Egkyklioi, Egkyklios 664 (26 October 1968).
- 66.
Stauropoulos , Demografiko Provlema, p. 10.
- 67.
Galanopoulos Metropolites Kytheron, Egkyklioi, Egkyklios 665 (1 November 1968).
- 68.
Galanopoulos Metropolites Kytheron, Egkyklioi, Egkyklios 666 (7 November 1968).
- 69.
Stavropoulos, Demografiko Provlema, p. 10.
- 70.
E Ierarhia tes Ekklesias tes Ellados (1978) Synodike Egkyklios tes Ierarhias tes Ekklesias tes Ellados (Athens: Typografeio tes Apostolikes Diakonias), pp. 4–6.
- 71.
Rizospastes , for example, discusses abortion in 1935–36 but in relation only to other places, not to Greece (Spain, Germany and the Soviet Union). After 1936 and until 1950 there are no references to abortion. In the 1950s there are a few references to abortion, and more in the 1960s; the newspaper Eleutheria regularly discussed abortion outside Greece: Michel Real (11 March 1967) ‘Roumania 1967: Mia mikre Politistike Epanastase’, Eleutheria, 23(6900), p. 3, referring to Rumania; Emerson Chapin (18 April 1964) ‘Ta Demografika Provlemata eis ten Iaponian’, Eleutheria , 20(6013), p. 3, referring to Japan; Anonymous (29 October 1960) ‘Auxethesan poly ai Ektroseis eis ten Ouggarian’, Eleutheria, 16(4936), p. 3, referring to Hungary.
- 72.
Kampoures, Therapeutikai, p. 4; ‘We cannot refuse that according to science the embryo is not a human but a pile of cells’ (N. Garakes (29 December 1931) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis?’, Makedonia, 22(6959), p. 1); I. Pontikopoulou (10 January 1932) ‘Einai Egklema e Ektrosis?’, Makedonia, 22(6969), p. 3.
- 73.
John Riddle (1998) Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West (London; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), p. 222; Metropoulos, Ygieιne, p. 143.
- 74.
No. 2 Mykonos.
- 75.
No. 2 Mykonos.
- 76.
No. 27 Mykonos, born 1906.
- 77.
No. 24 Mykonos.
- 78.
No. 5 Syros.
- 79.
No. 22 rural Syros. The informant probably referred to potassium permanganate, which at the time seems to have been in use in Britain, France and the USA (J.C. Miller (10 March 1951) ‘Potassium Permanganate as abortifacient’, British Medical Journal, 4705(1), 526). This was apparently an inefficient abortifacient, as it proved to be for the informant too.
- 80.
No. 22 Syros, author’s emphasis.
- 81.
No. 15 Mykonos.
- 82.
No. 1 Mykonos.
- 83.
No. 13 Mykonos, married in 1926.
- 84.
No. 26 Mykonos. A similar expression was used in a 1901 article when discussing a woman who found herself facing a dilemma because she was ‘unable to feed what was conceived in her womb’ and thus had to decide whether to ‘make it miserable [i.e. bring up a child in poverty] or to destroy it before it is born’ (N.Sp. (11 December 1901) ‘E apotropaios praxis’, Empros, 6(1841), p. 1).
- 85.
No. 24 Mykonos.
- 86.
No. 24 Mykonos.
- 87.
No. 20 Mykonos.
- 88.
See interview No. 22 Syros, in which the informant was dissuaded having an abortion by the physician, though she did not express this herself. She went to see the physician to discuss abortion, but came out of the meeting saying that ‘me a mother, to kill my child!’
- 89.
Michael Herzfeld (1985) The Poetics of Manhood. Contest and Identity in a Cretan Mountain Village (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), Chap. 7.
- 90.
Evaggelos Averof (1939) Symvole eis ten Ereunan tou Plythesmiakou Provlematos tes Ellados (Athens: n.p.), p. 81.
- 91.
Richard Blum and Eva Blum (1965) Health and Healing in Rural Greece (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press), p. 76.
- 92.
No. 9 Syros.
- 93.
E. Georges (2008) Bodies of Knowledge: The Medicalisation of Reproduction in Greece (Nashville: Vanderbuilt University Press), pp. 266–9.
- 94.
No. 12 Athens.
- 95.
E Ierarhia tes Ekklesias tes Ellados, Synodike, p. 6. In contrast, Barmpouti argues that the Greek Orthodox Church, in its ‘economy’, condemns the act and not the agent and therefore any woman returning to the Church with a petition would be excused (Barmpouti, ‘Eugenics’, 42).
- 96.
Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, p. 76.
- 97.
Nikos Kokosalakis (1987) ‘The Political Significance of Popular Religion in Greece’, Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religions, 64(1), 41. See also Heather Paxson (2004) Making Modern Mothers: Ethics and Family Planning in Urban Greece (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 60–2.
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Hionidou, V. (2020). The Ethics of Abortion: Poverty and Stigma. In: Abortion and Contraception in Modern Greece, 1830-1967. Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41490-0_7
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