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Abortion In The Fiction Of Laclos, Rousseau, Isabelle De Charrière, Montesquieu, Servanne Woodward
Abortion In The Fiction Of Laclos, Rousseau, Isabelle De Charrière, Montesquieu, Servanne Woodward
ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830
Eighteenth-century French fiction containing episodes on abortion are influenced by the seventeenth-century scandal of La Voisin, and by the 1731 legal suit involving the Jesuit Priest Père Girard and Catherine Cadière. Two observations may be derived from eighteenth-century French novels: women's abortions are monitored, instigated, and decided by fathers, husbands and lovers, who select for them, if they are to remain celibate, and whose children they bear. And as well, abortion tests or reveals the limits of a woman’s individual freedom and right to care for herself.