Operation Birth Rate: Limiting access to abortion in Russia is not a demographic solution but another problem

As for post-Soviet Russia, researchers are convinced that its birth control policy has been inconsistent. In the 1990s, the state implemented the Family Planning program, aimed at “having only desirable and healthy children,” among other things. However, as early as the late 1990s, lawmakers shut down the program because they saw affordable contraception as a threat to depopulation. Under the new anti-abortion policy, the list of social indications for abortion shrank from 12 to four items in 2003. But the national policy did not take a U-turn until 2006, when Vladimir Putin highlighted the demographic problem.

The year 2007 saw the creation of “medical and social assistance offices” at maternity welfare clinics, with the mission of compelling women who come to the clinics for an abortion to carry the pregnancy to term. The list of medical indications for abortion was also reduced. Considering the bill “On the Fundamentals of Public Health Protection in the Russian Federation” in 2011, deputies proposed several restrictions, including the infamous initiatives to remove abortion from public healthcare services and ban the procedure in private clinics

The eventual compromise between the Ministry of Healthcare and abortion opponents was the introduction of the so-called “week of silence” – a compulsory pause between seeking an abortion and the procedure itself – and mandatory “counseling” with the true purpose of getting the woman to reconsider her choice.

Most recently, public calls to tighten birth control have been voiced by Russian Orthodox Church clerics and State Duma deputies, who urged to withdraw abortion from the list of public healthcare services but perform the procedure exclusively in public institutions. However, against the backdrop of a population decline and Russia's war in Ukraine, the number of anti-abortion initiatives has surged this year, causing concern among activists and healthcare professionals.

Anti-abortion policy radicalization

The summer and fall of 2023 saw several crucial developments: several regions restricted abortion in private clinics, the Republic of Mordovia and Tver Region banned “encouraging” abortion, and the federal government tightened control over drugs used for medical termination of pregnancy. However, many fear that the listed measures are only the first steps towards a new, more radical course aimed at forcing women to have more babies.

In early November, Crimea’s private clinics unanimously stopped providing abortion. Meanwhile, their colleagues in Kursk Region refused to administer abortion pills. Earlier, some of the private healthcare providers in Mordovia, Tatarstan, and Chelyabinsk Region also announced they were no longer offering pregnancy termination services. Kaliningrad Region plans to follow suit. Most likely, the initiative to ban abortions in private clinics is being lobbied by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Thus, Patriarch Kirill advocated the need to withdraw abortion from public healthcare services while banning the procedure in private clinics in May 2022 and January 2023. Last August, Rev. Fr. Fyodor Lukyanov, chair of the Patriarch’s Commission on Family and the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, cited these two measures as “prerequisites for a turning point in the demographic situation.”

Currently, the Russian Orthodox Church officially views abortion as “the arbitrary taking of a human life tantamount to murder.” The ROC treats the fetus as a human being who has the right to human identity, life, and development, and has been demanding for years that these rights be enshrined in law. There is reason to believe that today the ROC is closer than ever to reforming abortion law.

Thus, the State Duma Committee on Health Protection held a round table in late October to discuss the ROC's proposals for legislative changes in pregnancy termination, including a reduction in the time limit for abortion at will from 12 to 8 weeks (from 22 to 12 weeks for rape survivors) and providing the right to decide on abortion to the parent or guardian of a pregnant minor or the spouse of an adult patient. It was also suggested that abortion should only be performed after an ultrasound scan during which the pregnant woman should hear the fetal heartbeat. After analyzing the panelists' comments, the Committee will propose changes to Article 56 of the Law on the Fundamentals of Health Protection in late November.