Abortion is a theme in the short story, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. In the story, the couple travels overseas for an abortion. Throughout the story, the man and woman contemplate if this operation is best for their relationship. In the late 1920s, women were not as independent as they are today; men often tried to control the decisions of their significant others. Hemingway alludes to this in the short story when the man coerces his significant other to have an illegal abortion. 

In this Hemingway story, an American couple is traveling to Spain for a specific reason, to have an abortion. The abortion is going to help with their relationship problems. The woman says to the man, 

“‘Then what will we do afterward?’

‘We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before’” (Hemingway 529). 

The reason they traveled overseas is because abortion was not legal and people would not perform them in the United States during this time period. It was easier to have this procedure done illegally in another country. According to Glick, abortion was not legal in Spain until June 1936 (Glick 93). 

Abortion was a controversial subject in Spain during the 1920s and 1930s. It is considered taboo because it was not favored by the Catholic church. It is not favored by the church in this time period because it is considered murder. Therapeutic abortions were the only form of legal abortions. This operation is defined as, “to end a pregnancy when the mother’s life is in danger or if the baby has abnormalities involving the major organ systems and is not expected to survive after birth” (Caccia). Abortions performed for personal preference were illegal during the time period of this story. Even with them being illegal, foreign countries offered abortions to wealthy couples.

Context clues from the story tells the reader this abortion was not therapeutic because the man is giving the woman an option. Hemingway shows this in the following quote by writing,  

““It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “It’s not really an operation at all.” The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s not really anything. It’s just to let the air in”” (528). 

The man continuously tries to convince the woman to have the operation. He does not take into consideration if she wants to abort her baby or not. If the woman keeps the baby there are no signs that it would cause harm to her, making this not a therapeutic abortion.

Hemingway alludes in the text that the man has planned the travel arrangements for him and his partner. The partner does not seem confident with the decision to have her baby aborted. The woman says, “We could have all this” (Hemingway 529).  In fact, she does not want to lose her baby at all, she just agrees with the man so he will continue to love her. She says, “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me” (Hemingway 529). She is clearly getting the abortion to stay in a relationship with the man so he can provide for her.

In the story’s time period, men liked to take control over their partner’s decisions. The man goes into detail about how the operation is simple and encourages her to get it. He says that everyone does it and does not take her feelings into consideration. The operation is actually quite complicated. Doctors knew little about this operation, because of this, he is putting his partner at a high risk or injury or even death. The man is putting his situation before her life because he simply does not want a child. The man states, “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ve known lots of people that have done it” ( Hemingway 529). By using the argument that a lot of people have had the operation, he wants her to not feel alone. 

Women not being allowed to have abortions in Spain became a prevalent problem. In the 1920s, people started advocating for women to have the right to an abortion. Glick states that people wanted to address the “taboo” operation, “...the Republic enacted some maximalist reforms, such as those addressing abortion, homosexuality remained a taboo subject” (Glick 68). This shows how people were ready to start addressing the issues.

Glick states in his essay how doctors in Spain were fighting for this right to help the country in a positive way. 

“The forces of sexual reform lost several other battles as well. José Luis Martín Antonio, physician and Radical-Socialist, introduced an amend- ment permitting abortion for social and economic reasons (the penal code of 1870 had allowed therapeutic abortions).” (91)

Abortions were to be made legal so that people would have them done in a correct manner. A “correct manner” means performed in a hospital or proper medical setting. It was also stated that abortions should be legal to allow people who can not afford children as an option. Glick states on the next page,

“...there is a growing voluntary limitation of parenthood in the “accommodated classes,” while the working class remains faithful to instinct. The law should right this imbalance. Malthusianism (the euphemism then used for contraception) ought not to be invoked in favor of the rich, forgetting the poor” (92).

Sex education was also missing in Spain as stated by Glick,

“All these amendments were in the service of greater sexual education, which he characterized as “another of Spain’s abandoned problems” (Glick 92).

With the proper education, the need for abortions would decrease. 

This time period lead up to the Spanish Civil War. During the war the sexual reform movement began. Previously Glick said,

 “The sexual reform movement in Spain before the Spanish civil war was the product of a loose coalition of physicians and lawyers influenced by Freudian psychology. These individuals shared concerns about gender inequality and sexual dysfunction, which they viewed as obsolete features of traditional Spanish society” (Glick 68).

This reform lead to abortions being legal in 1936.

Abortions not being legal had a large impact on the couple in this story. The man convinced the woman to go through with the operation even though she was not comfortable with it. Because of men's persuasion in this time period, many women did things they did not want to do to make their significant other happy. Abortion laws also had an impact on this couple. If abortions were not illegal, the woman could have chosen to have the abortion when she was ready; not when she was traveling overseas with the man.  
