Russia begins to reconsider wide use of abortion

Some observers fear, however, that an acrimonious US-style debate over the rights and wrongs of abortion would distract Russians from learning more about options that make abortions less likely.

"We need to tackle the problems from the opposite end, by creating conditions where women plan their [reproductive] lives calmly and rationally," says Mr. Zakharov.

But in 1998 the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, quit funding the federal share of budgets for family- planning centers, which dispense information on contraception, safe sex, and abortion.

Meanwhile, whether from contraception or from abortion or postabortion sterility, Russia's birthrate continues to plunge.

"The trend among young women today is to get an education and a profession, and to put off [having] children well into their 30s," says Lyudmila Timofeyeva, head doctor at a private gynecological consulting clinic in Moscow.

Russia's population now shrinks by an estimated 700,000 annually - a statistic that causes deep chagrin in Russian nationalist circles. UN experts have predicted that in a half-century, Russia will drop from the current rank of the world's sixth most populous nation to 17th.

President Vladimir Putin has called the slide "a creeping catastrophe," while military hawks warn that Russia may not be able to defend itself or hang onto its vast Siberian hinterland if the decline is not reversed within a few decades.

Russia has tinkered with reproductive options before. At a Communist Party congress in 1934, Joseph Stalin complained that the Soviet birthrate was "lagging behind the pace of socialist construction" and needed to be stimulated. Abortions were outlawed - the ban was lifted only in 1955 - and family planning was eliminated from the public-health agenda.

Currently, official figures show that 60 percent of first pregnancies in Russia are medically terminated.

The new restriction will curtail the virtual abortion-on-demand right that Russian women have had for almost half a century by making it much harder to end a pregnancy during the second trimester.

But, scoffs Mr. Zakharov, "if the goal of the Health Ministry's new restrictions on abortion is to boost the birthrate, it is an entirely useless measure."

The main reason abortion rates have dropped in recent years is that young women are becoming savvier about contraceptives and family planning, says Dr. Timofeyeva.

Yelena, an under-30 saleswoman in Moscow, says she learns everything she needs to know from books, magazines, and TV. "The attitude among my friends is to try and prevent pregnancy," she says.

But, like Natasha, a third-year student at the Moscow Linguistic University, Yelena does not rule out having an abortion if preventive measures fail.

"I would like to do everything to avoid an abortion," says Natasha, "but it has never occurred to me or my friends that [abortion] is immoral."

If abortion were ultimately banned in Russia, it would simply go underground, with resulting health risks, warns Timofeyeva."Once a woman has made up her mind to have an abortion, she will find a way."

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