Russian lawmakers move to tighten law on abortions, restrict morning-after pills

RIA Novosti / Sergey Krasnoukhov

RIA Novosti / Sergey Krasnoukhov

MPs want to limit state insurance payments for abortions, ban private clinics from performing them and allow women to buy morning-after pills only on prescription after an obligatory health check.

The bill was drafted Tuesday jointly by Sergey Popov of the
conservative majority United Russia party and Yelena Mizulina of
the center-left party Fair Russia. Mizulina also chairs the Lower
House Committee for the Family, Women and Children and is well
known for her uncompromising stance against abortion and in
defense of the “traditional family.”

The bill introduces administrative fines for performing abortions
outside state clinics. The proposed fines are 150,000-200,000
rubles ($3,000-$4,000) for private individuals, 500,000-800,000
rubles ($10,000-$16,000) for individual entrepreneurs and
officials and 500,000-2.5 million rubles ($10,000-$50,000) for
legal entities, which can also face the full suspension of their
activities for up to 90 days.

Another amendment proposes that the state health insurance fund
can be used to pay for an abortion only on condition of medical
prescription or “social recommendations,” such as cases
when the pregnant woman was raped.

The MPs also propose banning over-the-counter sales of emergency
contraception drugs, known as morning-after pills, claiming that
the side effects of these drugs have not yet been studied and
their irresponsible use can harm the women’s health. The bill
allows pharmacies to sell emergency contraception only on
prescription, after a health check.

The lawmakers also propose that any woman seeking an abortion
should undergo an ultrasound scan of her womb as, “according
to statistics, up to 80 percent of them refuse to have the
abortion when they see their child on the screen
.”

The sponsors of the bill said they want to combat the problem of
abortions, which they described as a major threat to national
security. The MPs also noted that, in their opinion, the origin
of the current crisis was in society’s tolerance of the problem.

The lawmakers also proposed to use about 5 billion rubles ($100
million) saved through the ban on state sponsorship of abortions
for aid to pregnant women who find themselves in difficult
situations.

READ MORE: Christian activists gather enough
support to launch bill banning abortion

In 2013, Mizulina said in a speech that the community must
urgently stop tolerating abortions and surrogacy as they threaten
to wipe out the population in Russia, and in the world as a
whole. It was then that she first suggested tightening
regulations on the termination of pregnancies and making
morning-after pills a prescription drug.

In mid-2014, a group of Orthodox Christian activists claimed that
they had gathered 100,000 signatures for a petition seeking a
complete ban on abortions in Russia – enough to make it a valid
legislative initiative. However, the proposal has not yet made it
into a bill.

Source Article from http://rt.com/politics/260037-abortions-russia-new-bill/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

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