Abortion Rates, Down by Almost 90 Percent Since End of Soviet Times, Continue to Fall Across Russia Except in Tyva and Moscow, Sakevich and Denisov Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 16 – Abortion rates in the Russian Federation have fallen by almost 90 percent in the Russian Federation since the end of Soviet times, as other means of contraception have become widely available, according to new research by Viktoriya Sakevich of the Higher School of Economics and Boris Denisov of Moscow State University.

            There are two exceptions to this trend, according to the two demographers who have focused on abortion for many years: Moscow where the large number of migrant workers has pushed the number of abortions up in recent times and Tyva which has not yet passed through the birth control revolution that has taken place elsewhere.

            As the number of migrant workers in Moscow declines or at least as efforts to keep those who are allowed to come from bringing their families with them and as Tyva undergoes the kind of demographic revolution that access to other prophylactic measures more common, these anomalies will decline and eventually disappear.

            But instead of taking such findings seriously and relying on anecdotes largely from the Russian capital, Anatoly Nesmiyan who blogs under the screen name El Murid says, the Kremlin has decided to move toward restricting access to or even banning abortions altogether (t.me/anatoly_nesmiyan/21079 resposted at kasparov.ru/material.php?id=670F57404D248).

            This pattern, El Murid suggests, is typical of the Kremlin’s approach when it comes to demographic questions. It is failing to pay attention to what is really going on and why, and it is regularly fighting the wrong battles as a result, often devoting its attention and energies to battles that Russia has already won or can’t possibly hope to win by the means the Kremlin has chosen.