More than 500 private medical centers have refused to provide abortion services despite being licensed to do so, the Russian Orthodox Church has said. This comes amid a pro-life Church initiative and a state push to boost birth rates in Russia.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, met with top figures in the clergy as well as the Deputy Chairman of the Demography Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on Thursday.
“According to the participants of the meeting, more than 71 regions of the Russian Federation supported the initiative of His Holiness the Patriarch to restrict abortion; 502 private clinics in Russia refused to perform abortions, which is 18% of all clinics licensed to perform abortions,” the Church statement said.
Abortions are legal in Russia, and the practice is covered by the national health insurance system. A pregnancy can be terminated up to 12 weeks into development at the woman’s request, and up to 22 weeks for social reasons such as being the result of rape, or in the case of death or disability of the husband. Later-stage abortions may be carried out for medical reasons only.
In both cases, there are mandatory waiting periods after the woman applies for the procedure, to allow for consultation time. A pregnancy can be legally terminated at any stage on medical grounds.
The majority of the Russian population opposes abortions without medical reasons, the Church said, quoting a poll conducted earlier this year.
At least 77% of Russians consider a fetus to be a human being, a sociological study conducted by the Center for Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) said. A mere 18% took the view that a baby only becomes a human at birth. Nearly three quarters of the respondents were against abortion by choice, outlook or for economic reasons, allowing for abortion only if medical issues were present, according to the poll data.
Last year, birth rates in the Russian Federation reached a 24-year low, according to official statistics. The number of abortions, meanwhile, has been steadily decreasing since the 1990s, at a rate of around 6% annually.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has pushed back against banning abortions in the past. This week, the Russian leader spoke out for boosting birth rates by building the right economic and social conditions for people to start large families.