Since December 16, 1962, abortion has been prohibited. The socialist regime never changed the law, but the general principles of necessity of criminal law allowed abortion to save the mother`s life. [ref. needed] The consequences of an abortion ban are always devastating, long-lasting, and completely different from what proponents of the ban expect. First of all, it always leads to an increase in the number of abortions, as happened in the Soviet Union after the abortion ban of 1936: by 1939, their number had increased by more than 150,000 compared to 1937. As a result of illegal abortions, which are often performed in unsanitary conditions, large numbers of women die or are no longer able to have children. And let us not forget the psychological difficulties of women who are forced to leave an unwanted child and children born not out of love, but out of despair. In today`s speech on abortion, the phrase “Don`t throw the baby out with the bathwater” could be reformulated. However, the baby was put forward while the woman was thrown out. The issue of women`s health and well-being has almost disappeared from the public agenda, and this is not only false, but tragic. After 33 years in the legal profession, I still do not understand people who argue that the rights of the embryo are more important than the rights of the woman in whose body it appeared against her will or in difficult circumstances.
And when a woman makes the heartbreaking decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, she does so because she can`t help it. But it is the woman who must decide for herself. It is their right and their decision. In today`s Russia, feminism is often seen as something imported from the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union, just like foreign finance or the Internet. In this context, the story of how Soviet women fought for the right to abortion is a sad case of lost memory – it has been forgotten that this was achieved here earlier than in Western countries. But this struggle was an important example of Soviet women`s political activism – and a history that helps us reconstruct a broader history of socialist feminism in the USSR. Marxist feminists support the right to free abortion for women of all classes. [1] The 1950 Penal Code states that abortion for “important reasons” is permitted up to the seventh week of pregnancy, but anyone who performs an abortion without just cause is liable to up to three years in prison.
A broad interpretation of the term “important reasons” means that abortion is practically available on demand and abortion services can be offered free of charge in provincial hospitals. [12] In the early Roaring Twenties of the 21st century, the abortion problem suddenly made waves on both sides of the Atlantic. In Russia, His Holiness Holiness last year called abortion a sinful practice in cases where abnormalities in fetal development are detected. Then the patriarch`s attitude softened somewhat, and he suggested that if there are medical reasons to terminate the pregnancy, a woman should be freed from sin, especially if she has other children. But by then, Russian lawmakers had picked up the tone. Before 1966, Romania had the most progressive abortion laws in Europe. However, after Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power, the decree of 770 only allowed abortion to save the mother`s life. It was also allowed for women over the age of 45 or with four or more children. (In 1974, the age was lowered to 40; in 1986, it was raised to 45.) The goal of the ban was a larger population that could lead to a larger labor force and consumption-led growth in order to achieve economic independence from the Soviet Union. [24] During those 23 years, more than 2 million unwanted children were born and at least 10,000 women died. Decree 770 was one of the first laws to be repealed immediately after Ceaușescu`s trial and execution on 25 December 1989. More than 1 million abortions were performed the following year, more than three times as many as this year.
[ref. needed] Laos has the strictest restrictions on legal abortions among current Marxist-Leninist countries; It is only permissible to save the mother`s life. [16] Soviet women, however, did not share this perspective. They recognize that poverty and unemployment play a role in women`s decision not to have children, but they also support abortion for other reasons. Statistical data from the late 1920s show that typical abortion patients were not poverty-stricken, unemployed or single. Women had abortions for many reasons: they wanted to continue their education, work outside the home, and better care for the children they already had.