In this talk, Bibia Pavard draws from her book La douleur et le soin to trace the complex material culture and multi-layered circulations of manual vacuum aspiration during the 1970s, focusing on the specific technique adapted and promoted by Harvey Karman. A Californian clandestine abortionist, psychologist, and resourceful tinkerer, Karman modified existing vacuum practices, widely used in Eastern Europe and China, into a portable, low-cost procedure using flexible plastic cannulas and syringes. The presentation tracks the journey of this device across multiple scales: from its transatlantic crossings between the United States and Europe—where it decisively reshaped debates on legalization and medical power—to its deployment across Asia and the Global South, which often intersected with coercive demographic agendas, clinical experimentation, and unequal access to safe care. By articulating these transatlantic and North-South pathways with the historical passage from abortion-as-ordeal to abortion-as-care, Pavard demonstrates how a simple technology transformed the bodily experience of pain while simultaneously exposing deep geopolitical imbalances in the governance of women’s bodies.
About the speaker
Bibia Pavard is Associate Professor in contemporary history at Paris Panthéon-Assas University, researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Analysis and Research on the Media (CARISM). Her research focuses on the history of gender, feminisms, and reproductive politics. She is the author of La douleur et le soin. Enquête sur Harvey Karman et sa méthode d’avortement (Éditions La Découverte), as well as Si je veux, quand je veux. Contraception et avortement dans la société française (1956-1979) (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012) and the co-authored volume Ne nous libérez pas, on s’en charge. Une histoire des féminismes de 1789 à nos jours (La Découverte, 2020).
This event is organized as part of the research project funded by SNSF RE:SHARE. Race and Ethnicity: Sexual Health and Reproductive Experiences in postwar Britain.