were childless, 41.2% had one child, 32.1% had two children, and 16.5% had three or more children, making the median number of children 1.47. of the rural women, 6.2% were childless, 26.9% had one child, 30% had two children, and 36.9% had three or more children, the median number of children being 2.06. of women seeking abortions, urban women were more likely to have fewer or no children. this may have been an effect of the lack of space faced by urban women. the survey also examined women's reasons for seeking abortions. it divided the reasons into four categories. the first was "unconditionally removable", things that could be remedied by government action, such as material need, lack of space, no one at home, or no institution to put the child in. the second category was "conditionally removable", things that might possibly be remedied by government action, such as the absence of a husband, family troubles, or illness of one or both parents. the third category was "unremovable", things that were not caused by social conditions, such as a baby in the family or many children already. the fourth category was "unclear causes", such as one or both parents’ unwillingness to have a child and multiple other reasons. the results for this question were: of the reasons given by urban women, 35% were unconditionally removable, 16.5% were conditionally removable, 10% were unremovable, and 37.9% were unclear. of the reasons given by rural women, 26.3% were unconditionally removable, 18% were conditionally removable, 10% were unremovable, and 45.2% were unclear. the most marked different was that more urban women cited lack of space as a reason. the survey results found that abortion rates were much higher among women who work, with a rate of 105.5 abortions per thousand pregnancies, as against 41.5 per thousand among women who did not work. if the abortion rates of this survey are taken to be representative, then during this period the number of annual abortions was higher than the number of live births. this would also mean that the abortion rates in the soviet union were the highest of any in the world at that time. by the end of the brezhnev era in 1982, soviet birthrates hovered just at or below replacement level except in the muslim-majority central asian republics. abortion in the early years of the russian federation the early years of the russian federation were marked by declining rates of fertility and abortion and increased access to and use of preventative birth control. the official policy of the soviet union at the time of its collapse was pro-family planning, although contraceptives were generally unavailable to the public, leaving most women with abortion as the only way to regulate family size. the declining rate of abortion indicates that fewer and fewer russian pregnancies were intended. most common in the 1990s were 'miniabortions', abortions by vacuum aspiration performed during the first seven weeks of pregnancy. the legalization of miniabortions in 1988 made the previously required three-day hospital stay unnecessary. unreliable quality and availability of contraceptive options may have partially slowed the decline in abortion rates in russia in the 1990s. in russia at the beginning of the 1990s, less than 75% of sexually active women used preventative birth control of any kind. while such resources became more available with the fall of the soviet union, by 1993 still less than half of russian women felt they had adequate access to them. in the first decade of the russian federation alone, both of russia's condom factories and the only russian iud factory shut down for periods of time because of concerns about latex prices and quality control. at the beginning of the russian federation, 41% of sexually active women in russia relied on unreliable 'traditional methods' of birth control. many women who used those methods cited the availability of abortions as a factor in their reasoning. many women who used no method of birth control at all also cited the option of abortion as a reason that they did not concern themselves with modern or even traditional family planning strategies. between 1990 and 2000 the number of annual abortions in russia declined by half, but the ratio of abortions to live births (2.04 in 1990 to 1.92 in 1996) hardly declined. this means not only that fewer abortions were performed, but that fewer women became pregnant overall. this overall declining rate of fertility was one of the two main structural factors in russia that promoted abortion over preventative birth control. other factors lowering the rate of abortion include measures taken by president vladimir putin to increase family size in russia. in the early 2000s he called for federal financial support for children in the first 18 months of life as a way to encourage women to have a second or third child. when he first proposed this, the russian population was declining by 700,000 people every year. in the first ten years of the russian federation, the population of russia declined by 3 million. concerns about population decline in russia are widespread. attempts to mitigate population decline started with increased financial support for young children in russia and eventually led to restricted access to abortion. other factors in the decline of abortion in russia include the legalization of sterilization. regulations of contraceptive sterilization had been in place since the 1930s but were lifted in 1993. in the first seven years that the practice was legal, almost 100,000 women sought and obtained sterilizations. this is a factor in the declining rates of unintended pregnancy in russia. 2003 was the first time in fifty years that laws regarding access to abortion were made stricter; every other piece of legislation on the topic in both the soviet union and the russian federation was to grant women easier access. in 1991, the year of the fall of the soviet union, a record number of about 3,608,000 abortions were performed in russia. this number declined steadily over the years and by 2002 russian doctors were performing 1,802,000 abortions annually. this is a significant decline, but left russia with still the second-highest rate of abortions per capita. while abortions in russia overall were declining, in the asian part of the country the rate was actually increasing. while abortion rates in these asian republics were not as high as those in western russia at the time of the collapse of the soviet union, and are still not the highest in the country, they did rise. the decrease in overall rates of abortion is mostly due to the very steep drop in abortions per year in the two biggest cities in russia, moscow and st. petersburg. national concern about declining population was a continuing trend since the 1980s, and caused the new regime to adopt anti-family planning policies. the use of contraceptives slowly rose over the 1990s but still in 1997 one in ten russian pregnancies ended in abortion, and so it could be assumed that at least one in ten russian pregnancies was unintended. legally in russia, the abortion procedure must take place in a hospital and as a result abortions provide an important source of income for healthcare providers. as abortions became slightly less common they hardly got safer. by 1998 two in three abortions still had some kind of health complication. among the most common of these complications is unintentional secondary sterilization, which happens to one in ten russian women who seeks an abortion in her lifetime. current law during the 2000s, russia's steadily falling population (due to both negative birthrates and low life expectancy) became a major source of concern, even forcing the military to curtail conscription due to shortages of young males. on 21 october 2011, the russian parliament passed a law restricting abortion to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with an exception up to 22 weeks if the pregnancy was the result of rape, and for medical necessity it can be performed at any point during pregnancy. the new law also made mandatory a waiting period of two to seven days before an abortion can be performed, to allow the woman to "reconsider her decision". abortion can only be performed in licensed institutions (typically hospitals or women's clinics) and by physicians who have specialized training. the physician can refuse to perform the abortion, except the abortions for medical necessity. the new law is stricter than the previous one, in that under the former law abortions after 12 weeks were allowed on broader socioeconomic grounds, whereas under the current law such abortions are only allowed if there are serious medical problems with the mother or fetus, or in case of rape. according to the criminal code of russia (article 123), the performance of an abortion by a person who does not have a medical degree and specialized training is punishable by fine of up to 800,000 rub; by a fine worth up to 8 months of the convicted's income; by community service from 100 to 240 hours; or by a jail term of 1 to 2 years. in cases when the illegal abortion resulted in the death of the pregnant woman, or caused significant harm to her health, the convicted faces a jail term of up to 5 years. political debate anti-abortion monument erected in 2013 outside a russian orthodox church in surgut the abortion issue gained renewed attention in 2011 in a debate that the new york times says "has begun to sound like the debate in the united states". parliament passed and in 2011 president dmitri medvedev signed several restrictions on abortion into law to combat "a falling birthrate" and "plunging population". the restrictions require abortion providers to devote 10% of advertising costs to describing the dangers of abortion to a woman's health and make it illegal to describe abortion as a safe medical procedure. medvedev's wife svetlana medvedeva had taken up the anti-abortion cause in russia in a weeklong national campaign against abortion called "give me life!" and a "day of family, love and faithfulness" by her foundation for social and cultural initiatives in conjunction with the russian orthodox church. opinion polls in 2006, the amount of russians viewing abortion as unacceptable under any circumstance was only 6%. by 2022, this had risen to 13%. statistics despite a significant reduction in the abortion to birth ratio since the mid-1990s, the countries of the former soviet union maintain the highest rate of abortions in the world. in 2001, 1.31 million children were born in russia, while 2.11 million abortions were performed. in 2005, 1.6 million abortions were registered in russia; 20% of these involved girls under the age of 18. official statistics put the number of abortions at 450,000 in 2020. as of 2021, the abortion rate was 12 abortions per year per 1000 women aged 15–44 years. abortion statistics were considered state secrets in the soviet union until the end of the 1980s. during this period, the ussr had one of the highest abortion rates in the world. the abortion rate in the ussr peaked in 1965, when 5.5 million abortions were performed, the highest number in russia's history. nevertheless, the legalization of abortion did not eliminate criminal abortions. 1920s to 1950s number of abortions performed in a sample of 364 rural clinics years legal abortion begun out of clinic total amount 1922 10,060 10,676 20,763 1923 13,996 14,296 28,293 1924 16,771 16,712 33,483 total number from time period 40,827 41,684 82,539 abortions registered in the ussr from 1936 to 1940 (partial territorial coverage) years total number of abortions performed out of which begun outside a clinic proportion of which begun outside of the clinic proportion of illegal abortions out of those which began outside of a clinic 1936 803,058 343,750 43% 1937 682,832 327,898 58% 1938 429,695 396,362 92% 1939 464,246 424,500 91% 9% 1940 500,516 452,557 90% 8.5% total number from time period 2,880,347 1,945,067 n/a n/a 1950s to 1990s abortions in the ussr and russia from 1954 to 1992 year abortions in the ussr abortions in russia all abortions legal induced abortions ('complete') spontaneous or criminal abortions ('incomplete') legal abortion rate total figures by ministry of health by ministry of transport all methods (total legal) curettage aspiration ('mini') per 100 live birthes per 1,000 women aged 15 – 49 total legal