Wykład prof. A.Kościańskiej na konferencji Leviathan (ERC Synergy)

Is “natural family planning” really natural? Transnational Catholic expertise during the Cold War

In this talk, I draw on my ongoing anthropological and historical research to reflect on the development of Catholic expertise during the Cold War and its current consequences. Using Poland as an example, I demonstrate how Catholic ideas about sexuality and reproduction became presented as scientific or medical and gained (global) significance. Prominent Catholic doctors were promoting Catholic conservative values, through such practices as humanizing embryos from the earliest stages of pregnancy and describing Catholic methods of birth control—namely “natural family planning”— as highly efficient and healthy alternatives to unhealthy “artificial” methods. I trace the roles of transnational conservative networks that have been developing since the 1970s as well as those of local conservative experts and link them to the contemporary attacks on sexual rights.

Więcej o konferencji (International conference “Transformations of Postwar Europe: Medicine, Bodies and Technologies”, May 27-30, 2024)