Tens of Thousands of Russian Women Said Pressured to have Abortions to Save Medical System Time and Money

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, January 8 – Approximately one in four of the more than 800,000 women in Russia who undergo abortions each year do so on the recommendations of their doctors, many of whom rely on incomplete or inaccurate information or act to save themselves and the country’s medical system time and money, according to some Russian medical experts.

 

            Russian government statistics suggest that only 12,400 of the 881,400 abortions performed in Russia in 2013 were taken on the basis of medical advice, but according to a report by Galina Papernaya in Profile.ru today, that dramatically understates the actual number (profile.ru/society/item/90509-bolnym-rozhat-ne-dadim).

 

            According to Lyubov Korolenkov, a specialist on cancer at Moscow’s Blokhin Center, “approximately a quarter of all abortions in [Russia] occur as a result of the influence of recommendations of doctors and are based, often falsely, on the diagnosis of other diseases [and cancer in particular] during the pregnancy.”

 

            The main reason behind such recommendations and such practice, Papernaya says, is “the low level of professionalism of ordinary doctors, especially in certain regions.” They don’t know what can be done to help pregnant women who suffer from other diseases. They don’t want to spend time on them, and they view abortion as “the cheapest outcome.”

 

            Not all the women doctors push to have abortions do so, the Profile.ru reporter says, and “as a result, tens of thousands of pregnant women with various diseases … overcome unbelievable obstacles in order to give birth to a child” without the kind of assistance from the medical system.

 

            Given that the government wants to promote a higher birthrate and some activists want to criminalize abortion, the question inevitably arises, Papernaya continues: “why isn’t help being given from the start to those who want to have a child?” And both she and others argue that there needs to be a change in attitude and approach in the medical profession to achieve that.

 

            That won’t be easy, she says, given that there are existing protocols doctors are required to follow, protocols that specify if a pregnant woman is diagnosed with cancer, she must get an abortion before receiving treatment for that disease. In some cases, that may be necessary, but in far fewer, many Russian experts say, than are currently occurring in Russian hospitals.

            Such women need support and attention rather than the brush off some of them are getting at the present time, the Profile.ru journalist suggests.