The right to choose: how abortion was treated in the USSR and Russia in different years

Mass protests are taking place in the USA against the background of the abolition of the right to abortion — there are clashes with the police in Los Angeles. The US Supreme Court has overturned the historic Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 — this may cause a complete or partial ban on abortion in some states. Almost 50 years ago, the court ruled that a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy at will — this has become a precedent guaranteeing the right to abortion throughout the country.

In Russia, any woman can have an abortion for free under the compulsory medical insurance, and in general, this procedure is treated quite loyally here. But has it always been like this? And how were things in the Soviet years? Read about it in our material.

The only methods of contraception up to the middle of the XX century were interrupted sexual intercourse, douching with vinegar and, in extremely rare cases, condoms. It is easy to guess that all these methods do not guarantee even 80% reliability, therefore, we can say that immediately after marriage, a woman began to give birth to children one after another. By the way, the methods of pregnancy diagnosis were very strange at that time, so many women were unaware of their "interesting situation" until the appearance of an impressive belly.

Before the onset of menopause, women a hundred years ago were in two states — either they were pregnant or they were breastfeeding. But those families in which the number of children was already off the scale, and there were critically insufficient funds for their maintenance, found a way out of the situation. As a rule, the woman resorted to the help of various herbs with abortive effect. However, they, again, did not give any guarantees, and if the miscarriage did not occur in the early stages, the premature baby had to be killed: starved, frozen, strangled or drowned. Here is a story shared by one girl:

The RSFSR became the first state in the world to officially legalize abortion. It happened in 1920. At the same time, a decree appeared allowing doctors to perform abortions in hospitals. This service was free, only the desire and consent of the woman was required.

But after 16 years, abortions were strictly prohibited. Women were banned from any termination of pregnancy, promising instead to increase the amount of financial assistance to young and large mothers, expand the network of maternity hospitals, nurseries and orphanages across the country, strengthen penalties for non-payment of alimony… The state was in desperate need of new citizens.

This led to the fact that soon some women began to turn to clandestine gynecologists, often without even having a medical education. Others — provoked a miscarriage on their own, at home, with the help of various herbs and medicines. We think it is not necessary to say that both of these methods of termination of pregnancy were extremely dangerous and entailed many unpleasant consequences.

In 1955, abortions were allowed again and by the mid-60s their number had grown to a record 5.6 million per year. At that time, abortion was equated with methods of contraception, so women could do 15, 20, 30, or even more such operations in their entire lives. And they did them, as a rule, "live", without anesthesia.

Now abortions are performed at the request of a woman for up to 12 weeks, for rape — up to 22 weeks, for medical reasons — regardless of the term. This procedure is paid for from the state budget and is completely legal.

However, the reality is not as cloudless as the records in the documents. In fact, the decision of a girl to have or not to have an abortion is influenced by many factors, ranging from condemnation by society, ending with her psychological state. It is very lucky when doctors, relatives, and friends treat this decision with understanding. In most cases, the "mother who killed her child" is despised.

On the territory of modern Russia, the attitude towards abortion is also changing rapidly. In 2017, the government approved the project "Formation of a healthy lifestyle". One of his goals is to reduce the number of abortions by 30% by 2025. In addition, the law provides for the so—called "days of silence" - the time that is given to a woman to carefully consider her decision. At the time of 4-7 weeks and 10-12 weeks before the abortion should take at least 48 hours, at the time of 8-10 weeks — 7 days.

And how do you feel about this procedure? Do you think the decision to ban abortions is right?