How Nazi family policy appears to be the model for Trump’s abortion record.
All fascist regimes seek to control women’s bodies.
As we approach the 2024 presidential election, let’s focus on one indisputable fact: 13 states abortions were banned. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. Women who have been victims of incest or rape cannot have an abortion nine states. The Heritage Foundation supports even broader restrictions in the Project 2025. Of course, control over reproductive choice was a central tenet of authoritarian regimes, including Mussolini’s Italy and Stalin’s Soviet Union. It was also one of the first pages of the Nazi manner, which was a conservative reaction to the significant achievements of German women in education, employment, and sexual independence over the previous decade.
Four months after Hitler came to power, women lost their reproductive rights. Abortion, which had been decriminalized in 1927—an era when pregnancy routinely threatened a woman’s life—was completely outlawed. The Nazi government reinstated the 1871 law that criminalized abortion.
Women’s clinics that provided abortion and contraception services were closed.
Nineteen thousand women who held positions in regional and local authorities were suddenly dismissed. Women lawyers were forbidden to work as judges and prosecutors. Women doctors could no longer receive reimbursement from government-sponsored insurance plans. The new quota limited the number of women who could study at a German university. In 1932—the year before Hitler came to power—18,315 women were enrolled in German universities; in 1938, 5,447. The girls’ high school curriculum was redesigned to focus on cooking, cleaning, and repair. Blessing of the child— women with children were honored as national heroines.
In a fiery speech, Hitler criticized “women’s emancipation”: “We do not consider it appropriate for a woman to invade a man’s world, enter his territory; instead, we find it natural that these worlds should remain separate.’ The Minister of Public Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, echoed this idea in his speech: “The first, best, and most suitable place for a woman is the family, and her most glorious duty is to bear children.”
Current issue
Nazi policies encouraged a return to traditional gender roles, encouraging women to abandon careers. Under the terms of the Marriage Promotion Act of 1933, couples could receive a government loan of 1,000 Reichsmarks if the working wife left her job. If she did not give birth to children, the couple had to return the entire amount. When she gave birth to one child, the husband and wife received a credit of 250 Reichsmarks; when she gave birth to two children, 500 Reichsmarks; when she gave birth to three, 750 Reichsmarks. The entire loan was forgiven the day her fourth child was born. Nazi propaganda fetishized the farmer’s wife as a feminine ideal. Images of young blond women in peasant clothes, cradling babies, appeared on posters, magazines and newspapers. “German men want real German women again,” claimed a 1933 Nazi handbook.
Abortion legislation in Nazi Germany undoubtedly reflected a deeply misogynistic ideology. The pro-natalist agenda behind the legislation was also undeniably racist. Alarmed by Germany’s declining birthrate, Hitler and his lackeys believed that only “racially pure” women of the so-called Aryan race should have children. Jews were allowed to have abortions.
Project 2025 calls for a national surveillance program overseen by the US Department of Health and Human Services to track women in all 50 states seeking abortions. “HHS must use all available tools, including funding cuts, to ensure that every state accurately reports how many abortions occur within its borders, at what stage of pregnancy, for what reason, by the mother’s country of residence, and by what method.” Each state will also be required to provide data on miscarriages, stillbirths and induced abortions and “provide a breakdown of statistics by category.” The language is disturbingly reminiscent of the Nazi regime’s 1935 mandate, which required hospitals to provide detailed reports of every premature birth, miscarriage and termination of pregnancy. The Gestapo files were overflowing with the names, addresses, and occupations of women suspected of having abortions, the dates of their procedures, and the instruments used to perform them.
In 1940, the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, was dismayed by the report that about 600,000 illegal abortions were being performed in Germany each year. Surveillance intensified. The term of imprisonment has been extended. The Marriage, Family and Maternity Protection Act of 1943 provided for the death penalty for doctors and anyone who dared to perform an abortion. Nevertheless, women continued to terminate their pregnancies.
The same is true in the United States today. Despite a nationwide ban on abortion, in 2023, more than 1 million abortions were performedincreasing by 11 percent from 2020.
While comparisons between Nazi Germany and the United States may provide facile and patently false analogies, there is ample cause for alarm. Marginal neo-fascists and mainstream Republicans share the belief that women should not have sovereignty over their own bodies. So does Project 2025, a coalition of 100 conservative organizations that have come together to support a massive expansion of presidential power. Trump is bragging about what will happen the guts of the Constitution if he is re-elected president, and what was once unimaginable, is very much up to us.
popular
“Swipe to the bottom left to see more authors”Swipe →
Controlling women’s reproductive choices is the bellwether of a broader attack on democracy. Now is not the time for complacency.
Can we count on you?
The future elections will decide the fate of our democracy and basic civil rights. The conservative architects of Project 2025 plan to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision at all levels of government if he wins.
We have already seen events that fill us with both horror and cautious optimism – throughout this, Nation was a bulwark against misinformation and a defender of bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers interviewed Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, exposed J.D. Vance’s right-wing populist appeals, and discussed the path to victory for the Democratic Party in November.
Stories like this one and the one you just read are vitally important at this critical juncture in our nation’s history. Now more than ever, we need insightful independent journalism with in-depth coverage to make sense of the headlines and separate fact from fiction. Donate today and join our 160-year legacy of speaking truth to power and elevating the voices of grassroots advocates.
Through 2024 and what will likely be the defining election of our lifetimes, we need your support to continue publishing the insightful journalism you’ve come to expect.
thank you
Editors Nation
More from Nation
The world’s richest man is expecting a big return on his investment for his generous support of the Trump campaign.
The liberal political establishment has all but given up on organizing in rural areas. These companies are key to keeping our democracy alive.
A century after the Indian Citizenship Act made their ancestors US citizens and recognized their right to vote, Native Americans still face barriers to voting…
With the federal minimum wage remaining in place for more than 15 years, voters in Alaska, California, Missouri and Massachusetts will decide on measures to raise wages.
