MOSCOW — Physician Marina Chechneva remembers the old-style Russian gynecologists who worked in state hospitals and churned out back-to-back abortions like Soviet factory workers. She remembers the women who "used to use abortion as a kind of vacation, because in the U.S.S.R., they got three days off from work."
Chechneva, head researcher at the Moscow region's Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics, performs abortions as part of her medical practice. These days, she is writing magazine articles about fetus development in hope of raising public opposition to abortion. After years of handling fetuses, she explains, she has come to feel a responsibility toward them.
The women "should realize that what they're doing is already a murder," she said.
A fledgling antiabortion movement is beginning to stir in Russia. Driven by a growing discussion of abortion as a moral issue and, most of all, by a government worried about demographics, doctors and politicians are quietly struggling to lower what is believed to be one of the world's highest abortion rates.
"The attitude has changed," said Alexander Medvedev, a gynecologist who performs the procedures. "Even in community clinics, doctors are trying to dissuade patients from abortion. Now teenagers come to see us with already two or three abortions, and it's horrible."
It's an uphill struggle. Doctors say contraceptive use remains unpopular and that many Russian women rely on abortion for birth control.
The government is desperate to persuade citizens to bear more children. Russians are dying faster than they're being born, a trend that has emerged as one of the most serious challenges faced by this sprawling, scantily populated land.
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New restrictions
The discussion is devoid of terms such as "pro-life" or "pro-choice." From doctors to patients to officials, nobody seems to consider seriously the possibility of outlawing abortion. But the government recently imposed new restrictions on the procedures after the 12th week of pregnancy, and toughened the language of a waiver women must sign before terminating a pregnancy.
Late-term abortions used to be easily accessible on "social" grounds: A woman merely had to visit a social worker, complain that she wouldn't be able to raise a child, and she could collect a stamped waiver. These days, exceptions are available only for extreme circumstances, such as the sudden death of a husband or a medical emergency.
