In Sexuality and Abortion in Interwar Poland: Maternity in Times of Crisis, Elisa-Maria Hiemer explores women’s rights and the reformation of the legal thought in early twentieth-century Poland through the lens of the 1932 abortion law, views on female sexuality, and perceptions of motherhood. You can purchase a copy of the book here.
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What first sparked your interest in this topic?
Elisa-Maria Hiemer: When I was browsing through Poland's central online archival portal, the huge number of abortion court cases in one specific archive made me curious. I went on site to investigate the materials, and I think I have never read more emotionally challenging but also deeply insightful personal stories than I did there: about poverty, sexual pleasure, infidelity, domestic violence, and social pressure.
What is one book that changed your perspective during your studies?
EMH: I actually have two. First, Tomasz Wiślicz’s Love in the Fields: Relationships and Marriage in Rural Poland in the Early Modern Age because it debunks the myth of the morally strict and god-fearing countryside citizens. Also, Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak’s Maids for Everything provided me with more details about young working women who were the most prominent and the most vulnerable group I researched in my case studies.
What do you hope readers will take away from Sexuality and Abortion in Interwar Poland?
EMH: I hope they understand that abortion is not a question of morality. It is a question of healthcare, and the legal framework can determine whether a pregnant woman lives or dies. Bodily autonomy is a hallmark of democracy, and we must be very careful not to weaken its value.
Which finding from the book surprised you the most?
EMH: How much the outcome of an abortion trial depended on the social status and the behavior of the indicted woman. Informed, financially independent women generally asked for a second opinion or appealed the verdict. In contrast, illiterate, poor women usually appeared very humble and pleaded moral guilt to avoid harsher punishment.
What project are you working on now?
EMH: I have stayed in the field of family studies in a broader sense. I am comparing post-separation and divorce discourses in Hungary and Poland. Specifically, how the media and law have shaped the image of single parents since 1945.
What advice would you give to young scholars writing their first books?
EMH: I think everyone has a very different method. As for me, I write chronologically, i.e., chapter by chapter. Once the manuscript is completed, I check whether each chapter still fits the argument that I am trying to make. You might write passages that, in the end, won’t make it into the book, but that’s okay, you can trust the process. Posting new insights or anecdotes from current projects on social media surprisingly helped me get to the core of my message. Critical friends, people with expertise whom you trust but who aren’t afraid to criticize you in a productive way, are also key for a book project.