Moscow, January 31, 2017
The number of abortions in Russia has been cut in half over the past four years, Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova told Interfax-Religion recently.
Speaking at the conference “On creating conditions for increasing the birthrate in the Russian Federation,” the ministry head stated that they will continue working fervently to continue minimizing the rate: “We will, undoubtedly, proceed further in this direction. Over the past four years the number of abortions in our country has decreased twice over, so there is still room for movement, and we will be moving in that direction.”
Skvortsova noted that 2016 was a “very significant” year, the number of abortions reducing by 96,300 (13%). In previous years the average drop was 8%, for example, by 67,000 in 2015. “I’m very pleased,” she said, “that of these ninety-odd thousand, the number of abortions by desire, that is, without any medical condition, decreased by 72,000.”
The minister also noted that they will continue to work towards reducing the infant mortality rate, with the help of recently opened prenatal centers in various regions where the rate is somewhat higher.
