ИСТИНА

Russia inherited the Soviet Union, which supported all progressive initiatives stemmed from the UN and other international organizations, at the same time we are now experiencing a conservative revolution, therefore, the situation in our country is quite contradictory. Reproductive rights have traditionally been mainly concerned with maternity. The emphasis in regulatory documents is on protecting mothers and children and on mother’s reproductive health, and a lot has been achieved in this field. However, the state’s attitude towards safe and satisfactory sexual life, family planning and reproductive choice has been and still is ambiguous. Although abortion and contraceptives are legal, they are negatively viewed in some segments of society, and many people and policy makers still believe that birth control is synonymous with limiting population growth and that increased access to family planning services results in a decline in the birth rate, and thus in depopulation which is a national nightmare. Official policy with respect to family planning has changed radically in the last 15 years, from being supportive and encouraging to being critical and dismissive. Federal family planning program was adopted in early 1990s and was given the status of a presidential programme shortly before the Cairo Conference, associated with the Children of Russia program. The program supposed to fundamentally alter society’s attitude towards women’s reproductive rights, to encourage family planning and create suitable conditions for its implementation. It assumed that increasing sexual awareness and transition to more modern birth-control methods would, among other things, ensure a substantial decrease in maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. At the same time gay sex between men had been decriminalized. Creation of a family planning service in Russia coincided with the years immediately following the Cairo Conference. The Ministry of Health opened hundreds of family planning clinics centers, and free contraceptives were provided for distribution by medical facilities to socially vulnerable groups. Post-graduate training courses were set up for specialists, sexual education programs for schools were developed. These initiatives proved highly effective, as rates of abortion and maternal mortality declined rapidly. However, these steps to extend reproductive rights encountered fierce resistance. Led by communists State Duma launched a campaign against them. In 1998 budget funding of the programme was cut off. The government now is adopting a different approach, attempting to reduce the abortion rate by restricting availability of abortion services, introducing clerics in them, disseminating disinformation on harmful effects of abortions on female health, and suggesting that abortions are unacceptable from an ethical point of view. Now Russia has no official family planning program. It may result in a reduction of use of contraception, which not only prevents abortions, but helps to avoid STDs including HIV/AIDS. Russia has no comprehensive sexual education program in schools, although some elements are included in optional educational programmes for healthy living (HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.). The Concept for Russian demographic policy up to 2025 (approved in 2007) mentions among its objectives, "the strengthening of the institution of the family and the restoration and preservation of spiritual and moral traditions in family relations" and calls for additional measures to further reduce the abortion rate. The program does not specify what these measures might be. Inconsistent state policy and lack of financing make it doubtful whether recently achieved positive changes in reproductive health can be maintained. Yet Russia remains a nation with likely most liberal abortion regulations in Europe. However, the government plays a double game declaring rights, but avoiding to support them.