Russia's Demographic Disaster

Russian Abortion Killing and Sterilizing Millions:

MOSCOW/VLADIVOSTOK, April 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An English language news magazine from Moscow reports that up to one third of Russian abortions result in the death of the mother. The Russian government has been alarmed for some time at the impending demographic disaster created by the low birth rate. In addition, after decades of communism which endorsed abortion as a form of birth control, the physical and psychological after effects of so many millions of abortions have yet to be completely felt. Communist Soviet Union was the first nation in the world to legalize abortion in 1920.

Conservative estimates put the Russian abortion rate at 60% of all pregnancies, approximately a tenth of which are on girls under 18. Vladimir Kulakov, the deputy director of the Russian Women’s Health Center says that of some 38 million women of childbearing age, about 6 million are infertile, and medical authorities consider abortions a major cause of infertility.

[...] [Vladimir] Kulakov told Mosnews.com that of 3.5 million annual Russian pregnancies, only 1.5 million children are actually being born. Add to that the death rate of one woman in three and the number of women of child-bearing years who are capable of conceiving, Russia’s demographic disaster is promising to be worse even than the most sombre predictions. Kulakov said that as many as 15% of Russian couples are infertile and suggests a government funded programme of artificial insemination.

According to Bloomberg: Russians, Dying Younger, Have More Abortions Than Children.

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Russians, whose lives are shorter and poorer than they were under communism, have more abortions than births to avoid the costs of raising children, according to the country's highest-ranking obstetrician.

About 1.6 million women had an abortion last year, a fifth of them under the age of 18, and about 1.5 million gave birth, said Vladimir Kulakov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. ``Many more'' abortions weren't reported.

``The appearance of a first child pushes many families into poverty,'' Kulakov said today in the government's official newspaper, Rossiskaya Gazeta. ``Potential parents first try to start a career, stand on their feet and so forth.''

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the ensuing hyperinflation and depression deprived millions of Russians of their incomes and savings and discouraged couples from having children[...]

Posted by Kyer at August 24, 2005 09:15 PM | TrackBack