Undoing its fruit. A social history of abortion in modern France

Discover the ninth session of the seminar “Regards croisés sur la petite enfance” 2024-2025: "Undoing its fruit. A social history of abortion in modern France."

The seminar looks at early childhood as a social, historical and cultural construct. Theories and knowledge relating to the conception, birth and development of children are analyzed in terms of their interactions with their environment and gender norms. Against this backdrop, the seminar will explore the boundaries of this age category and address the question of its temporality according to medical, international, anthropological or historical standards.

In modern France, voluntary abortion is the subject of numerous normative discourses that attempt to circumscribe its contours in order to better condemn it, but it is also a social reality that exists underground. This paper outlines the main findings of this survey of abortion in France in the modern era, focusing in particular on the way in which the refusal of maternity is viewed, and the social trajectories of those who choose it, but also proposing to place abortion in the broader context of the question of birth control in the modern era.

• Laura Tatoueix : PhD in modern history, CNRS research fellow, assigned to the TEMOS laboratory (Angers).
• Vincent Gourdon: historian at CNRS