WARWICK CASE: Abortion in Cuba: Reproductive Freedom in a Socialist State

Photo of a Cuban abortion clinic, from Hampton Institue, hamptonthink.org, [Accessed 08/07/2025]

In 1996, the average Cuban woman had 2.3 abortions,  with “No tenía condiciones” (“I didn’t have the conditions”) being the most common justification for having done so.  Faced with the various responsibilities of bringing up a child, especially in the post-Cold War, socialist, US-embargoed Cuba, Cuban working-class women often turned to abortion upon finding themselves pregnant. Since becoming the first country in Latin America and the Western Hemisphere to legalise the medical process in 1965,  Cuba’s high rates of abortion meant it came to take on what some historians call a ‘culture of abortion,’ where women used the termination of pregnancy as a form of contraception.  A contentious issue which calls into question the meaning of legality, we decided to use the EUTopia theme of Legal History to investigate this concept further, researching the idea of reproductive freedom in a socialist state.

The subject of reproductive rights has become somewhat uncertain in the last few years – particularly noticeable in the drawback of abortive rights in the US and the subsequent cultural impact this has had around the world.  Questioning the idea of bodily autonomy and the extent to which women have jurisdiction over their body has almost become a global trend, becoming a point of conflict largely between the two sides of the political spectrum. As a country distinctively more progressive than others in its region regarding the legal rights of women, Cuba sticks out as an outlier. It has a fascinating history in itself, and researching the process that it took to legalise abortion allowed us to investigate issues which were pertinent to contemporary international concerns as well as our own interests. The EUTopia Peak Event was an important moment for our research. Listening to such a wide range of case studies surrounding the theme of Legal History allowed us to reconsider what legality meant in terms of abortion in Cuba. We saw how legality could work as both a form of oppression and liberation – at times, the law enacted justice, but it also showed itself to be a gross misuse of power. If a large majority of the abortions taking place in Cuba were occurring because of a lack of sufficient living conditions, and if the procedure was still often unsafe for the mother, was the legislation of 1965 really an act of liberation, or rather a form of power and control?

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 saw Cuba become an official Communist state and Fidel Castro rise to power – a rule which lasted until 2008. It brought about a transformation in civil society as well as in the political sphere, taking a turn from the previous military dictatorship headed by Fulgencio Batista. Castro advocated for social justice and national sovereignty amidst the revolutionary movement, and Cuba as a Communist state came to mean a different, collective approach to the idea of the individual.  The legalisation of abortion in 1965 was entwined in this. The first two years of Castro's government saw progressive social reforms, particularly concerning women's rights. As sexual inequalities and the role of women in the workforce were reconsidered, reproductive freedom became an essential component of revolutionary change. Female liberation worked hand in hand with the class struggle. This, along with socialism’s scientific rationality and its disdain for strict religiosity,  meant that abortion became a matter of equality and healthcare rather than morality.  

So, what does reproductive freedom in a socialist state look like now? Why does Cuba have a distinctively high rate of abortion?

Throughout the research process our primary source analysis centred around the testimonies of Cuban women. We felt this was the most representative and candid way of looking at the legalisation of abortion in Cuba, and, in particular, its high rates.  Although, this did mean we were only able to access those which had been translated into English, which were often embedded in secondary literature. Cuban women’s oral testimonies usually positioned the legalisation of abortion outside of the communist context, viewing it as more of an individually experienced social movement. These testimonies often depict the disparity between the ideal – the modern, socialist, experiment of reproductive freedom, and reality – the state’s inability to provide the conditions necessary to produce and nurture children. Unable to maintain the responsibilities of bringing up a child, especially with the large economic constraints faced by the working class, Cuban women largely accredit the nation’s high abortion rate to the lack of sufficient economic conditions.

One of our main primary sources focused on Ana, a 79-year-old Afro-Cuban woman, who was interviewed by Karen Morrison in her novel Cuba’s Racial Crucible. Much of the literature surrounding abortion in Cuba fails to recognise moments of intersectionality, i.e., the experiences of non-white women, therefore Anas's interview is valuable in exploring the relationship between race and sexuality. She talks of the different experiences of white and black women with regard to sexual identity, pregnancy, infidelity, and marrying for love, and speaks of being “embraced” by white men with authority over her. In her interview with Karen Morrison, Ana, a self-titled ‘mulatta,’ mentions her eight abortions, which she chose to have simply because she could not afford to have children. She states, “This was precisely so as to not have to live in poverty and that my children would not suffer. It is a crime, but I understood it to be necessary.” Some of her abortions occurred before it was legalised which is why she refers to it as a crime. This brings into question the inadequacy of contraceptive methods in socialist Cuba, as well as the measures and statutes surrounding sexual assault, and it is an interesting insight into how women understood and interpreted the laws that were imposed on them. In a quite backwards way, the ease of getting an abortion almost put the responsibility of the pregnancy and abortion on the man involved – a concept which has not quite yet been fully understood in the West.

This sentiment of having multiple abortions purely out of necessity is also reflected in an interview between historian Elise Andaya and Idaly Santos, a Cuban mother of two living in Havana. Published in 2014, Santos speaks of her twenty-four abortions which she saw as “follow[ing] the modern norms of developed countries.”  Andaya discusses the paradoxical reception of high abortion rates in Cuba – on one side, they reflect a modern and civilised society, where women are liberated and able to make their own decisions, in which their lives are not drastically altered by an unplanned pregnancy. On the other hand, they represent the lack of education and easy access to contraception, and the ignorance towards safe sexual practices.  The state has shown itself to be inadequate in providing the average working-class Cuban woman with the sufficient economic condiciones to securely give birth to and nurture a child. Whether this inadequacy is a result of internal misdemeanours or the US embargo, it has led to greater rates of unsafe abortions and maternal mortality rates throughout the country. It is clear that the legalisation of abortion in 1965 was only one step in the fight for reproductive rights. It must be accompanied by further reforms in order to provide safe reproductive healthcare and wider access to education regarding contraception.

The morality of abortion with regard to the viability of the foetus is rarely discussed within these oral histories. This bears quite a significant contrast to Western perspectives, which perhaps view abortion as an act of liberation, more of a choice than a necessity, and therefore a morally dubious one for which the mother takes responsibility. It is case studies like this one which make the topic of legality and Legal History so diverse and interesting to study. We enjoyed presenting this subject to our EUTopia peers, and we were most grateful for the questions asked of us at the Peak Event which allowed us to consider our project further.  

By Riaz Ali Hulston, Lilly Furssedonn, Emily Hearn and Arushi Singhai

References:

[1] Danièle Bélanger, Andrea Flynn, ‘The Persistence of Induced Abortion in Cuba: Exploring the Notion of an ‘Abortion Culture’’, Studies in Family Planning, 40.1 (2009), pp. 13-26 (p. 16).

[2] Elise Andaya, Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in Post-Soviet Cuba (Rutgers University Press, 2014), p. 78.

[3] Leni Villagomez Reeves, ‘Women Lead Cuba Solidarity Activism’, Peace and Freedom, 80.1 (2020), pp. 10-11, 23 (p. 10).

[4] Andaya, Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in Post-Soviet Cuba, p. 72.

[5] ‘The World’s Abortion Laws’, Center for Reproductive Rights, 2025 <https://reproductiverights.org/maps/worlds-abortion-laws/> [Accessed 25 May 2025].

[6] Susan Eckstein, Back from the Future: Cuba under Castro (Routledge, 2003), p. 15.

[7] The impact of Catholicism on social infrastructure and tradition is explored in Joseph Holbrook, ‘The Catholic Church in Cuba, 1959-62: The Clash of Ideologies’, International Journal of Cuban Studies, 2.3/4 (2010), pp. 264-275.

[8] Andaya, Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in Post-Soviet Cuba, p. 71.

[9] The high rate of abortion in Cuba is referenced as 72.8 abortions per 100 births in Gilbert Berdine, Vincent Geloso, Benjamin Powell, ‘Cuban infant mortality and longevity: health care or repression?’, Health Policy and Planning, 33.6 (2018), pp. 755-757 (p. 755).

[10] Karen Y. Morrison, Cuba's Racial Crucible: The Sexual Economy of Social Identities, 1750-2000 (Indiana University Press, 2015), pp. 220-221.

[11] Andaya, Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in Post-Soviet Cuba, p. 69.

[12] Ibid, p. 70.

Bibliography

‘The World’s Abortion Laws’, Center for Reproductive Rights, 2025 <https://reproductiverights.org/maps/worlds-abortion-laws/> [Accessed 25 May 2025].

Andaya, Elise, Conceiving Cuba: Reproduction, Women, and the State in Post-Soviet Cuba (Rutgers University Press, 2014).

Bélanger, Danièle, Andrea Flynn, ‘The Persistence of Induced Abortion in Cuba: Exploring the Notion of an ‘Abortion Culture’’, Studies in Family Planning, 40.1 (2009), pp. 13-26.

Berdine, Gilbert, Vincent Geloso, Benjamin Powell, ‘Cuban infant mortality and longevity: health care or repression?’, Health Policy and Planning, 33.6 (2018), pp. 755-757.

Eckstein, Susan, Back from the Future: Cuba under Castro (Routledge, 2003).

Holbrook, Joseph ‘The Catholic Church in Cuba, 1959-62: The Clash of Ideologies’, International Journal of Cuban Studies, 2.3/4 (2010), pp. 264-275.

Morrison, Karen Y., Cuba's Racial Crucible: The Sexual Economy of Social Identities, 1750-2000 (Indiana University Press, 2015).

Reeves, Leni Villagomez, ‘Women Lead Cuba Solidarity Activism’, Peace and Freedom, 80.1 (2020), pp. 10-11, 23.