Moscow, June 8, 2022
During the communist years in the Soviet Union, abortion was considered commonplace and even necessary. Abortion was first legalized by Lenin, then temporarily banned by Stalin, only to be reinstituted in full vigor under Khruschev. It was practiced as perhaps the main form of birth control in the country. Along with atheism as the official state religion, the practice of abortion became widely accepted. The Russian Orthodox Church, however, never changed its view of abortion as infanticide and a mortal sin. Now the conscious of the Church is gradually entering the national conscience in this regard, as a recent survey shows.
According to 13 % of the Russian population, there are no longer circumstances today that would justify the termination of pregnancy. While in 2015, only 5% of the citizens of the Russian Federation considered abortions unacceptable, according to survey by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) published on its website on Tuesday, Interfax-Religion reports.
Conversely, 36 % of the population surveyed believe that a woman has the right to an abortion under any circumstances if she wants it, and 43% of respondents consider termination of pregnancy justified if there is a threat to life.
The results of the study show that more than a third of the Russian population (36%) are convinced that the state has a duty to take measures to prevent abortions, while every second respondent (51%) is against any regulatory measures.
More than a quarter of the Russian women who participated in the survey (29%) admitted to having terminated their own pregnancies.
According to VTsIOM, almost two-thirds of the women (60%) have acquaintances who have had an abortion; of the men surveyed, 38% reported that they have women acquaintances who have terminated their pregnancies.
The All-Russian survey was conducted on May 29, 2022 among 1,600 respondents aged 18 and above.
