“You don’t have to wait for offspring for no reason at all”

Held in the State Duma round table on the topic “Issues of termination of pregnancy. Legislative aspects”. Deputies promised to amend the legislation to prohibit, in particular, abortions in commercial clinics. They also proposed reducing the period for permission to terminate from 12 to 8 weeks of pregnancy and giving fathers the right to decide on an abortion. However, not all participants in the discussion agreed that such measures will help correct the demographic situation.

Honored Doctor of Russia, member of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection Veronika Vlasova began the event on abortion with a quote from President Vladimir Putin: “Strengthening the institution of family and patronage, protecting motherhood and childhood – all these are issues of priority importance for the development of our state.” Thus, she set a high bar for the speakers. They tried at least not to reduce the pathos.

The first deputy chairman of the relevant Duma committee, Leonid Ogul, outlined three blocks of problems: social policy in relation to families with children, the priority of reproductive health not only of women, but also of men (here Mr. Ogul recalled that the State Duma recently added the word “fatherhood” to the name of the committee on family issues , women and children) and the moral and spiritual education of “our Russians.” “We are fighting to include the “My Health” discipline in the school curriculum. Remember your childhood: where did you hear about this or that taboo topic? From friends, on the street, but from not a specialist, not from a teacher,” explained Leonid Ogul. “We once talked with our spiritual father and asked him what to do with the Internet, there is some kind of problem, it needs to be closed.” And he said that the Internet is like a knife, you can cut bread, but you can kill a person. This is where the most important thing is to engage in the spiritual and moral direction…”

First Deputy Head of the State Duma Control Committee Dmitry Gusev said that he knows of at least three theories of the origin of the soul, and all of them recognize that the soul arises at the moment of conception. Therefore, the deputy believes, the rights of embryos need to be regulated by law, and the ability to make a decision on abortion must be given to both the mother and the father – after all, if the embryo in the womb has a soul, this is required by the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

Veronica Vlasova also spoke out for the consent of the father, if the marriage is registered. The list of other changes to the law “On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens,” which will be proposed by the relevant committee, will include the informed voluntary consent of one of the parents in the case of a pregnant minor (currently parental consent is required only for adolescents under 16 years of age). She also proposed that abortion be carried out at the request of a woman only in public hospitals for up to eight weeks inclusive, after a mandatory ultrasound and demonstration of the mother’s fetal heartbeat. Currently, the law defines this period as up to 12 weeks. And artificial termination of pregnancy for social reasons should be carried out during pregnancy up to 12 weeks (currently up to 22 weeks). Such indications include, in particular, pregnancy as a result of rape. “Russia should have a path to having many children. Women should give birth to at least three happy and healthy children in marriage,” Veronika Vlasova concluded her speech.

Most participants spoke about the need to ban abortions in private clinics, since these institutions do not provide statistics on the number of operations performed, do not comply with requirements for days of silence, and, in the end, even perform “criminal abortions.” Therefore, the data from the deputy head of the department of medical care for children, obstetric services and public health of the Russian Ministry of Health, Victoria Sakharova, seemed even unnecessary (by chance or not, her microphone briefly went off in this very place): “We are immersing private healthcare in our system. We added them to the statistical report forms. We see how much pre-abortion counseling they provide. All our measures allowed us to save 47 thousand pregnancies. This is a great achievement for both public and private medicine.”

Honored Worker of Sciences of the Russian Federation Viktor Radzinsky, “a legend of obstetrics and gynecology,” as Veronika Vlasova introduced him, suggested looking at the problem more broadly. He recalled that the eight billionth inhabitant of the Earth appeared seven years later than UN forecasts, which were still steadily coming true, which means that “the world has stopped giving birth.”

Mr. Radzinsky recalled the “Russian cross”, the demographic situation that developed in the early 90s with a short break during the “blessed” years of 2012–2016 and continues now – when mortality exceeds birth rates.

“You don’t have to wait for offspring for no reason, from no one. What does this have to do with 300 thousand abortions?” – he addressed the participants of the round table. Viktor Radzinsky commented on the previously made proposals: “Don’t require the husband’s consent, we have 34% of single-parent families, where can we get that husband? Father – under no circumstances. Because she is going for an abortion because her father will kill her or her brothers will kill her. 22% of respondents are in favor of a ban in private clinics. The removal of abortion from compulsory health insurance is 100% against both doctors and women. As for reducing the time limit for abortion: doctors are not against it if curettage (curettage of the embryo) is prohibited.” Mr. Radzinsky might have wanted to continue, but he was interrupted by shouts from the audience: “Stop this disgrace. It’s impossible to listen to this. Why are you lying?”

Leonid Ogul took the floor: “WHO recommends a lot of things to us. We are clearing things up here in the State Duma. I am very proud that in our convocation they banned the change… abortion…” he misspoke and immediately added: “That means we’ll ban it.” Gender reassignment is prohibited. We’re not saying that everyone who gets pregnant will give birth, but it should be somehow spiritual in the heads of our people.”

President of the Family, Country, World Foundation Inga Yumasheva began her speech with the 14th verse of the 31st chapter of the Holy Scripture: “A voice is heard in Rama, a cry and a bitter sob; Rachel is crying for her children.” She complained that we “objectively” do not hear such crying for “children killed in the womb.” Mrs. Yumasheva also recalled the special operation: “Victory over fascism in the Northern Military District is impossible without victory over fascism within. Abortion at will is the killing of an innocent person due to inconvenience, incompetence, ill health and untimeliness. We must call evil evil and do everything to make it less.”

The degree of tension was slightly reduced by the chief freelance specialist on women’s reproductive health of the Russian Ministry of Health, Natalia Dolgushina. She said that on November 10, clinical guidelines on abortion will be published, which reflect many of what the roundtable participants said.

Thus, the Ministry of Health recommends abandoning curettage, separating women who came for an abortion and continuing the pregnancy, introducing the possibility of stopping a medical abortion with the help of other drugs, conducting an ultrasound and showing the fetal heartbeat before an abortion.

Ms. Dolgushina proposed not to change the laws immediately, but to include a number of measures that may carry “certain risks” in documents such as clinical recommendations and procedures; if something happens, they can be easily rewritten. Veronica Vlasova assured that this is only the first step towards the legislative fight against abortion.

Natalia Kostarnova