Feminism as a polyglot undertaking: translating the “abortion chapter” of <i>Our Bodies, Ourselves</i> in 1990s Serbia

The global travels of the American feminist health classic Our Bodies, Ourselves have shown that translation often acts as a key mechanism for bringing diverse feminist communities together, even as it exposes divergence in feminist worldviews. In the case of women’s reproductive rights, American women’s mobilisation for abortion legalisation in the 1970s has inspired much literature which has travelled beyond the borders of the United States through translation. The case of the adaptations and direct translations of Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971) offers a window into the ways in which a specific, local, American pro-choice discourse crossed geopolitical frontiers and was taken up by women’s rights activists in various contexts. This article will delve into the Serbian translation, Naša tela, mi, published in 2001 in a post-conflict, post-communist context of Eastern Europe. While the Serbian translation was spearheaded by local women’s rights activists inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, the pro-choice discourse in translation appeared less as a tool for emancipation due to a different history of abortion legalisation and the role of abortion in entrenching traditional gender relations in the region.