Moscow, April 24, 2019
Photo: foma.ru
The countries of the former Soviet Union continue to have among the highest abortion rates in the world. Abortion is legal in Russia as an elective procedure up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and in 2017, there were 780,000 abortions officially recorded, for a population of 145 million.
While the serious fight against this grave sin continues, the ratio of abortions to live births in Russia and other former-USSR countries is improving. A significant drop in abortions was recorded in Russia in 2018, according to a report of the Minister of Health Veronika Skvkortsova, made available to RIA-Novosti.
“In 2018, the number of abortions decreased by 9.6%, that is, nearly 60,000 cases,” the report reads.
Moreover, the number has dropped by more than 39% in 7 years. OrthoChristain previously reported that the number has dropped by 2/3 since 2000.
As the Minister notes in the report, such results were achieved by the large-scale program of the construction of prenatal centers and their integration into a three-level obstetric care service, implemented by President Putin. A new prenatal center was opened nearly every month last year.
Doctors participating in the recent 2nd Hippocratic Forum proposed including the reduction in the number of abortions in the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the authorities in the regions throughout Russia, reports RIA-Novosti.
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