Russian lawmakers are limiting abortion access to address the country’s prevailing demographic crisis, the decision has gained a huge backlash.
The lawmakers of Russia made attempts to Prohibit women from having abortions and pressured private clinics to cease performing the procedure. The two measurements of the actions taken at the meeting didn’t sit right with many activists in the country.
The campaign, according to feminist organisations, is endangering the lives of women.
About 60 people showed up for the meeting at a bookstore in Kaliningrad, the westernmost city of Russia, despite its last-minute scheduling. However, some of the attendees were furious about authorities trying to outlaw abortions in nearby private clinics.
The meeting was surprising for Dasha Yakovleva, one of the organisers, amid the recent repression of political activism under Vladimir Putin’s government.
Dasha Yakovleva, co-founder of the Feminitive Community women’s group commented on the matter saying that there is no room for political action in Russia. The only place left is the kitchens.
“it was a public place, well-known in Kaliningrad, and everyone spoke out openly about how they see this measure, why they think it’s unjustified, inappropriate”, she added.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin, is also playing a key role in the anti-abortion campaign.
Patriarch Kirill, the Kremlin-backed head of the church, said in a statement earlier this year that he, as a member of the clergy, witnessed abortion as a disaster and tragedy for a woman and her loved ones.
The far-right politicians and the church actively force women and girls to give birth to unwanted children, said the Ural Feminist Movement, a group that organised small-scale protests for abortion rights.
These initiatives will only lead to a sharp increase in the number of illegal abortions and the huge number of injured and dead Russian women are some of the comments related to this problem.
Although abortion remains legal and widely available in Russia, recent attempts to restrict it have struck a nerve across the increasingly conservative country. Activists are encouraging supporters to file formal complaints, circulate online petitions, and even organise small protests.
While the appeal was made in Kaliningrad, private clinics have already begun to stop furnishing abortions.
Nationwide, the Health Ministry has drawn up guidelines telling doctors to best guide women from terminating their children. Additionally, new regulations will make it difficult to attain contraceptives due to unapproachable costs.
Doctors were further advised to tell young mothers who are under 18 that young parents bond better with their kids “because they are practically from the same generation”.
Russia: The Stagnant Population Crisis
Russia’s population is nearly the same size as it was over 20 times ago.
According to the official data, there are 144 million people in the country, 2 million shorter than in 2001, when President Vladimir Putin first came to power.
Religious authorities say a crucial factor for the demographic extremity is the high number of abortions. Nearly a third of Russian women say they’ve undergone one.
In 2022, more than 500,000 foetuses were terminated, compared to 1.3 million children born in Russia, the president called it ”an acute problem”.
Authorities are concerned that the decrease of youthful people, particularly men, will make it a national issue for the Russian service to retain soldiers for the military. The population crisis in Russia is also causing a huge economic disbalance as well.
Amid the volatile situation in the country, Russian feminists commented saying Women’s rights are being curbed for the military and economy. “ “They need new taxpayers, they need new soldiers,” Maria Mueller from the Russian feminist association Ona, told the media.
