Press Release, 1.12.2023

Photo: Arthur Gaiduk / Photo by the Press Service of the Pskov branch of Yabloko

Artur Gaiduk, a doctor and deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly from Yabloko, commented on numerous proposals by Russian officials and clergy to limit women’s right to abortion, and also drew the attention of deputies to an almost two-fold decrease in the number of pediatricians in the Pskov region over the past twenty years:

“As far as I understand, we have taken a course towards banning abortion. All the developments going on now lead to this. People who are trying to do this most likely count on the fact that there will be an increase in the birth rate in the country, since our demographic situation is close to a disaster.

These people are poorly informed about the history of this issue, because there have been many situations when abortions were banned in our country, and not only in our country, and what this led to is also well known.

Each such ban, including in the USSR at one time, led to an increase in the number of criminal abortions, women dying from sepsis after them, and becoming infertile. This did not in any way increase the birth rate.

The latest experience is our neighbour Poland, where a ban on abortion was introduced, and this did not increase the birth rate. Quite the opposite. This causes much more problems rather than resolves the demographic issue.

In addition, there is one more problem worth thinking about. In our Pskov region, according to the latest data, the number of pediatricians has decreased by 45% [since 2004, according to the data published by state statistics web-site]. We are ranked first [out of all Russian regions] in the sad list of declining number of doctors in this specialty across the country”.

On 30 November, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region unanimously approved a ban on abortions in private clinics and they will send the bill to the State Duma for adoption, they propose to make it a federal law.

Also, on 9 November, the Crimean Ministry of Health reported that private clinics in the region “voluntarily refused” to perform abortions after a request from the relevant departments. The same thing happened in Tatarstan, the Kursk region and the Chelyabinsk region.

On 2 November, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Tver region approved fines for “inducing women to have an abortion”. Similar measures were introduced in Mordovia and the Kaliningrad region.

 ARTUR GAIDUK

is a deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly, the Yabloko faction. Chairman of the Pskov regional branch of Yabloko. Ambulabce doctor of the Pskov Ambulance Station