612Chapter 30The changing attitudes in post–World War II Eu-
rope led to the reversal of the legislation outlawing
abortion (see table 30.12). Shortly after Stalin’s death,
the Soviet Union relegalized abortion in 1955. Abor-
tion became legal in Britain in 1968, and nearly 24,000
legal abortions were performed that year. In the next
twenty years, the number of legal abortions performed
in Britain grew nearly eightfold, reaching 184,000 in
- At that rate, nearly 20 percent of all pregnancies
in Britain ended in an abortion. By the 1970s the legal-
ization of abortion had become a trend in Europe. Si-
mone Veil, the minister of health, persuaded Jacques
Chirac’s conservative government to legalize abortion
in France in 1974. A French endocrinologist, Etienne
Baulieu, developed an abortifacient drug known as RU
486, and in 1980 it became widely available there. Ital-
ian voters went to the polls in the spring 1981 referen-
dum and approved abortion by a two-to-one margin,
despite papal opposition calling abortion murder. Bel-
gium legalized abortion in 1990. Although Ireland did
not legalize abortion, a controversial case in 1995 al-
lowed Irish clinics to assist Irish women to obtain abor-
tions abroad.
The highest rates of abortion were typically found
in the Soviet Union and the states of eastern Europe.
Bulgaria had an abortion rate more than four times as
high (per one thousand population) as the United
States did. And in 1990, 55 percent of all pregnancies
in the Soviet Union were terminated by a legal abor-
tion, in part because contraceptives remained largely
unavailable. Romania, however, forbade abortions un-
der the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu and did not
legalize them until he was deposed in 1989. And in
Poland, where the Catholic Church played an impor-
tant role in both the revolution of 1989 and the elec-
tion of Lech Walesa to the presidency, abortion was
again outlawed.The Continuing Vital Revolution
The vital revolution of modern European history is
chiefly explained in terms of diet and disease (see chap-
ters 17 and 22). Twentieth-century European history—
with its larger population, lower death rates, longer life
expectancy, smaller families, and reduced agricultural
sector of the economy—must return to these factors for
explanations.
To understand the role of food in the vital revolu-
tion of the twentieth century, one must resolve a puz-
zle: Between 1900 and 1990 the population of Europe
increased from 423 million to 501 million, while agri-
cultural employment declined dramatically—from 32
percent of the population in Austria to 9 percent, from
41 percent of the population in France to 8 percent—
and the amount of land devoted to agriculture de-
creased (by 15 percent in western Europe). Whereas
the vital revolution of the eighteenth century had led to
extensive use of the land—such as clearing forests,
draining swamps, and enclosing common lands — to
feed a growing population, the vital revolution of the
twentieth century fed a growing (albeit more slowly)
population with less land and fewer workers.
Grain has long been the key to understanding agri-
culture and the diet, and studies of grain production
show the success of European agriculture during theRate of legal abortions performed per 1,000 population
Country 1989
Bulgaria 16.1
Czechoslovakia 10.3
Hungary 8.8
Sweden 4.3
Denmark 4.1
United States 3.9
Norway 3.8
Britain 3.1
France 2.9
Italy 2.9
Poland 2.1
West Germany 1.0Percentage of pregnancies terminated by abortion
Country 1990
USSR 54.9
United States 29.7
Denmark 27.0
Sweden 24.9
Britain 18.6
Source: Rates per thousand calculated using data from the Demographic
Yearbook,reported in Information Please Almanac, Atlas, and Yearbook
1994 (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), pp. 130–31, 135; rates of
pregnancies terminated by abortion from Michael Wolff and others.,
Where We Stand(New York: Bantam, 1992), pp. 253, 264.TABLE 30.12Legal Abortions, 1990