“If They All Lived, Rancerbar Would Be Full Of Children!”

The case of Filomena Permoser, abortion provider

Abstract

The author discusses the work of Filomena Permoser (1899-1968), who performed abortions at her home in Cerknica from the mid-1930s onwards. First, he sheds light on the chain of knowledge transfer, which already involved his father Ferdinand Permoser (1859-ca. 1944), who learned to perform abortions in the USA at the beginning of the century. The author reconstructs the decades-long activities of Filomena Permoser, as revealed by surviving criminal files, media reports and field findings. While the profile of Filomena Permoser in the criminal files largely corresponds to the stereotype that Western culture created of abortion providers in the first half of the 20th century, the narrative of the informants, who knew Filomena Permoser personally and who also know the memories of several other fellow citizens of the country, paints a very different picture.