Abortions in Russia Before and After the Fall of the Soviet Union

Abstract

The initial section of the article elaborates on diverse attitudes towards abortion, and specifies the number of abortions performed before and after the fall of the Soviet Union. The following section presents spatial characteristic of the performed abortions against the largest Russian administrative units. Regional conditioning has been analysed based on the number of abortions per 100 labours and number of abortions among women in labour age (between 15 and 49 years of age). The article also discusses the activity of non-governmental women organisations which aim at providing medical information and participate in the family planning initiatives. Finally, the article presents the rules and conditions of allowing to perform abortion and significant changes in Russian legislation on that issue.

Albanian Context

“…The status of abortion and reproductive rights was not uniform across the former socialist countries. For example, in Poland, abortion was legalised during communism and delegalised afterwards, while Russia legalised abortion in 1920, penalised it from 1936 to 1955 and then legalised it again after Stalin's death (Wites, 2004).…”

Population, living standards and well-being, 1949–1989

“…Yet, socialist regimes were not uniform in their view on abortions: when some Eastern European socialist regimes made abortion illegal, Soviet laws became more liberal: abortion was prohibited in 1936 but became easily available and free of charge after 1955 resulting in record high number of abortions in the range of 6-7 million a year (Wites, 2004). Similarly, in Poland where abortion had been prohibited since 1932, the law became more lenient in the 1960s and 1970s until the transition, when the government returned to the strict control.…”