Russia: What's behind the anti-abortion push?

Women seeking to end their pregnancy in Russia have been facing many new obstacles in recent months — the government is limiting the sale of abortion drugs, the Russian Orthodox Church is pushing to ban abortion in private clinics, and two Russian administrative regions have already imposed fines for "incitement" of pregnant women to abortion.

Church officials are also calling for laws that would make it mandatory for married women to obtain their husband's consent before ending their pregnancy. Separately, Russian senator Margarita Pavlova, herself a graduate of the Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture, recently said it was, "necessary to stop directing girls towards gaining higher education… which then, essentially, leads to nothing."

According to the politician, young people spend many years searching for themselves, and miss out on their "child-bearing function."

The lawmaker had already described abortion as murder and a threat to national security in times of war, according to Russian media.

Abortion opponents pressure private clinics

The initiative to limit abortion to state clinics has now reached Russia's federal parliament. And while lawmakers are still discussing the idea, officials in several regions, including occupied Crimea, have already announced that private clinics have "voluntarily" agreed to stop providing terminations unless there is a medical justification for doing so. This reportedly does not include the regional capital of Crimea, Sevastopol.

Supporters of the measure argue that state clinics tend to be more thorough in following government guidelines, such as demanding women undergo counseling and take a "week of silence" before making their final decision.

But there is another reason to push pregnant women towards state clinics, according to women's rights activist Maria Karnovich-Valua. Private clinics usually use medication to induce abortions, which is a less intrusive and less painful method compared to surgical fetus removal preferred by state-funded facilities, she told DW.

Karnovich-Valua warns that the surgery in Russia "can be a painful and uncomfortable procedure, which scares many women."

Psychologists to create 'a negative stance' on abortion

While the latest wave of anti-abortion rhetoric appears extreme, it comes in the wake of the Russian government's decades-long efforts to tackle the country's demographic crisis. The fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing economic collapse of the 1990s caused the birthrate to plummet — from just over 2 children per woman in 1987 to 1.16 in 1999.

Birthrates started to recover after Vladimir Putin was elected president in 2000. Experts believe this was due both to economic stabilization and state-approved financial support for parents under Putin's regime. In 2015, Russia's birthrate reached a high of 1.78 children per woman — although this was still below the maintenance level of 2.1.

In 2017, as a part of its efforts to raise Russia's birthrate, Russia's Health Ministry sent out a set of guidelines for counselors working with women considering pregnancy termination. According to the ministry, the therapist should influence women by steering them toward preserving pregnancy and "forming a negative stance in women towards abortion."

The outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022 has sparked a new set of demographic issues, with widespread insecurity, young men getting mobilized and many young couples leaving the country. In the first four months of 2023, Russia saw 3.1% less children being born than in the same period in 2022, according to media reports citing official statistics.

Official data indicates the Russian population shrank by at least 524,000 in 2022, and is now close to 146.4 million.

A 'magic wand' solution

With the Ukraine war continuing unabated, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kiril, has urged Russian lawmakers to impose a nationwide ban on "incitement" to abortion as well as banning abortion in private clinics, pointing to similar initiatives on the regional level.

According to the religious leader, such measures will solve the demographic crisis, "like the wave of a magic wand."

Experts, however, warn that restricting abortions would not magically raise the birth rate. In fact, abortion bans tend to lead to more illegal abortions, a slight jump in mortality among mothers and newborns, and so-called abortion tourism in which women travel to other regions or countries to terminate pregnancies.

"There might be a small, temporary birthrate growth in the first year, but further effects will turn either negative or neutral," demographic expert Alexei Raksha told DW.

In order to tackle the demographic crisis, Raksha recommends raising state-provided assistance to parents, and directing it to as many families as possible.

"This measure, applied over the course of decades, could raise the birthrate by 15-20%," he told DW.

Kremlin pushes women towards 'kitchen, children and church'

Even Vladimir Putin seems skeptical when it comes to abortion bans. In early November, the Russian president called abortion a controversial issue, saying, "the question is what to do about it?"

"Ban selling medication that terminates pregnancy? Or improve the socio-economic situation in the country, raise living standards, real salaries, benefits... help young families buy homes?" he asked.

The Kremlin is wary of "going overboard" on restricting abortion, political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin told DW's Alexei Strelnikov. According to Oreshkin, the Russian government senses that this idea is unpopular among parts of the Russian populace and is afraid of female solidarity.

But even without outlawing abortion, the government will proceed "Putin style," imposing a series of restrictions amounting to a de-facto ban, he told DW.

In some parts of Russia, like in Muslim-majority Chechnya, this process will be easy, and more cosmopolitan Russian regions "will simply move ahead of the curve, to show their loyalty."

Oreshkin believes the Putin regime will continue to pursue its present conservative course of pushing women towards the "kitchen, children and church."

Alexei Strelnikov conducted interviews for this article.

Edited by: Jon Shelton