Traditionalism Resurgent

After decades of falling abortion rates, a debate has suddenly flared up in Russia over the issue. Some voices in parliament were louder than ever in their push to limit or even ban the practice, claiming that millions of women in Russia abort their pregnancies.

In fact, official figures indicate that , between 1993 and 2015, the ratio of abortions to live births in Russia fell from 235 to 44 per hundred. Furthermore, the rate of 26 abortions per 1000 women of childbearing age in 2014 puts Russia well below the global average of 37, and on par with the average in developed countries (27) – certainly a long way from being the country with the world’s highest abortion rates it once was.

Today, Russian women are able to take advantage of modern contraception not available a generation ago. Yet religious groups argue that abortion culture is prevalent and some officials claim six million abortions are carried out annually in Russia – something demographers say is physically impossible.

Meanwhile, in what can only be viewed as grim news for Russian women, lawmakers have approved a law decriminalizing domestic violence. Under the new regulations, if a first-time batterer does not cause serious bodily harm, such as a broken limb, the offense will fall under administrative rather than criminal law.

A first-time incident would be punished by a fine of about $500 or 15 days of community service. If a victim of domestic violence is severely harmed and requires hospitalization, regular assault laws would come into play.

Domestic violence currently accounts for about 40 percent of all violent crime in Russia.

According to interior ministry statistics, 9,800 women died from assault in 2015, and 25 percent of murders and serious assaults take place in the home.

“Women don’t often go to the police or the courts when they are abused by their husbands,” according to Communist lawmaker Yury Sinelshchikov. “Now there will be even fewer such cases, and the number of murders will increase.”

“Police don’t take complaints of domestic violence seriously,” Yulia Gorbunova, a Human Rights Watch researcher, claims. “They say, ‘call us when he breaks your legs.’”

Some 380 lawmakers (out of the total 450) voted for the law, and just three opposed the bill. Defenders of the measure argued that the change was justified because non-domestic battery that does not result in serious harm is not a criminal offense, meaning it was no longer a criminal act if someone were to strike their neighbor’s child, while a parent could be imprisoned for up to two years for doing the same thing. The Orthodox Church was irate about the discrepancy, saying it regarded “the reasonable and loving use of physical punishment as an essential part of the rights given to parents by God himself.”

Акция приурочена к памяти Вифлеемских младенцев, убиенных царем Иродом, желавшим погубить родившегося Богомладенца. В этот день во всех государственных медицинских учреждениях Ярославской области будет запрещено проведение абортов.

“This action [designating January 11 as an abortion-free day] is held in memory of the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem, when King Herod was attempting to kill the recently born Christ child. On this day, it will be forbidden to have an abortion in all state medical facilities of Yaroslavl region.”

Statement by the Yaroslavl Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, which agreed with authorities on a one-day abortion ban in January.

A poll in 2015 by the Levada Center showed that just 20 percent of Russians believe the government has the right to regulate abortions (11 percent of these said women should be criminally prosecuted for abortions). 66 percent said women have the right to make the decision themselves.

1960s: highest annual number of abortions in USSR (5.6 million)
number in 2015: 848,000

Abortion Policy Timeline

1920 – New Soviet government allows abortions

1924 – Women are required to provide documentation proving they need an abortion

1936 – Stalin bans abortions

1955 – Abortions are again allowed

1987 – Women are allowed to have an abortion as late as 28 weeks

1996 – Latest term for an abortion is reduced to 22 weeks, with special circumstances, 12 weeks without

2003 – List of special circumstances allowing late term abortion is cut from 12 to 4

2009 – Law passed regulating advertisement of abortion services

2017 – Clinics required to obtain a separate special license to perform abortions

“For many years, women regularly beaten by their husbands found solace in the rather hypocritical saying “he beats me, therefore he loves me” (бьет значит любит). But the latest scientific research gives the wives of quick-tempered men a reason to be proud of their black eyes: beaten females, as biologists claim, have a great advantage – they bear sons more often!”

Editorial in the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda

Политики никогда не упускают случая набрать очки, эксплуатируя возникающие в обществе разногласия, идет ли речь о ношении никаба, планировании семьи или возможности для девочек посещать школу, а то и о праве женщин водить автомобиль.

“Politicians never fail to exploit the disagreements that flare up in society to score political points, whether the subject at hand is wearing the hijab, family planning, or the opportunity for girls to go to school, or even women’s right to drive cars.”

– Demographer Anatoly Vishnevsky, interview for the Institute of Modern Russia,
on how campaigners for “traditional values” seek to stem modern social
and cultural trends, be it in Russia or elsewhere.