The Tatarstan authorities intend to ensure that at least 15% of women seeking an abortion refuse this decision. Kommersant reports this with reference to a document approved by the Prime Minister of the Republic Alexey Pesoshin.
Now, according to the Republic’s Ministry of Health, 12% of patients refuse to terminate their pregnancy. The absolute number of abortions over three years decreased by 10.2% and amounted to 11.3 thousand in 2022 (in 2020 it was 12.6 thousand).
According to the implementation plan for the “National Strategy of Action in the Interests of Women,” Tatarstan wants to “strengthen the role of crisis centers for pregnancy support.” Women wishing to have an abortion will be informed “about available federal and regional support measures.” They will be offered “targeted assistance” and “individual support until the moment of birth.”
In addition, the republic plans to create “reproductive health schools” on the basis of the Children’s Republican Clinical Hospital. A “motivational survey of all women” who decide to have an abortion will be conducted. It is planned to introduce “speech modules to create positive attitudes toward childbirth” in the work of antenatal clinic doctors.
The special council, which will coordinate the implementation of the plan, was headed by Deputy Prime Minister of Tatarstan Leila Fazleeva. In total, the coordination council included 23 people.
In June of this year, Tatarstan adopted a program according to which more than 35 thousand children should be born in 2025. The program calls reducing the number of abortions in women of reproductive age “one of the potential to increase the birth rate.” By 2025, the authorities plan to reduce the proportion of childless women from 30 to 27%.
At the beginning of August 2023, officials gathered the heads of medical institutions for a meeting “on the issue of carrying out abortions in commercial medical clinics in the republic.” “As a result of the meeting, clinics in the republic are one after another removing abortion from the list of services,” Tatarstan Children’s Ombudsman Irina Volynets previously said on social networks.
The Ministry of Health of the Republic reminded that “according to federal legislation, a “week of silence” must be organized before an abortion.”
“The pregnant woman is sent to the psychological assistance office for counseling and motivational questioning. She has the opportunity to discuss problems with a psychologist, social worker, lawyer, and other specialists. The patient is told about possible complications after the procedure and ways to solve her problems,” the ministry said.
However, they noted that such work is “organized in a state network,” and “cases of non-compliance with this procedure have been identified in private clinics.”
As a result, according to the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan, by September 2023, about a third of the commercial clinics that previously provided such services had refused licenses to perform abortions. Volynets also proposed to encourage the refusal to perform abortions by compensating private clinics for lost income due to this.
