Russia Rethinks Abortion
"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia," said Winston Churchill. "It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Churchill made this evaluation in 1939 as Europe exploded in war. Some things never change, and Russia remains an enigma, still capable of surprises.
For most of the last half-century, Russia [or the Soviet Union] has encouraged abortion as a means of birth control. Soviet medicine was notoriously unconstrained by ideals of medical ethics, and abortion was just a means of solving a social problem. Committed to a militant form of atheism, the Soviets did not consider abortion a moral issue--just a medical procedure.
In the 1988, as the Soviet Union's days were running out, over 4.6 million abortions were performed. Last year, that number had dropped to 1.7 million, but 60 percent of first pregnancies in Russia still end in abortion. The official state policy has made abortion easily accessible and virtually free.
The procedure is just a technology to end a pregnancy, the communist regime insisted. Many Russian women bought the argument. Quoted in the Christian Science Monitor, "Natasha," a student at Moscow Linguistic University said: "I would like to do everything to avoid an abortion, but it has never occurred to me or my friends that [abortion]is immoral."
That is changing. Russian lawmakers have just passed the first restrictions on abortion since Joseph Stalin's ban on abortion was lifted in 1955. Abortion in all three trimesters has been readily available. But now, women seeking late term abortions must cite one of four "special circumstances" or the procedure will be denied. This hardly amounts to a reversal on abortion policy, but it does represent a first step toward the recovery of a human life ethic.
Especially encouraging is the fact that moral considerations have forced this change in policy. "It's a first step," said Aleksander C. Chuyev, a member of the Russian Parliament's lower house, who introduced a bill outlawing all abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy. He helped to negotiate the compromise plan adopted by the government, and plans to sponsor a bill this fall granting the fetus the same rights as a child. [NYT]
Originally published September 03, 2003.
