Access to reproductive healthcare, including abortions and family planning services, remains a deeply polarizing issue within contemporary Eastern Europe. Originally a question reserved for couples, this topic has since been elevated to the public realm through the emergence of modern nation states. Challenging Norms offers a geographically wide-ranging re-examination of family planning in twentieth-century Eastern Europe, interrogating the relationship between social attitudes to family planning and the forces of social, economic, and political modernization. In doing so, this volume highlights how these changes provide invaluable insights into ever-evolving societal norms and values.

Heidi Hein-Kircher has been Director of Martin Opitz Library (Herne) and Professor at Bochum University since October 2024. Before, she was head of the Academic Forum at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe. In her research, she focuses on gender and family history, urban history, historical security, and minorities studies, and on the emergence of modern values and norms in Eastern European societies since the nineteenth century. Her recent publications include the co-edited volumes, Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and Historicizing the Mobility/Security Nexus and the Making of Order (Routledge, 2023).