Russia – 17-year-old college student gives birth in bathroom stall and leaves baby wrapped on floor.

Hospitals in her region of Russia have stopped offering abortions.

November 24, 2025
Source: Meduza

Students at a teachers’ college dormitory in Russia’s Zabaykalsky Krai found a newborn baby on the floor of a bathroom stall this weekend. The child’s mother, a 17-year-old pupil at the school, had given birth in the bathroom and left the baby wrapped in a jacket. The mother and child were later taken to the hospital, and the two are now together under medical supervision. The baby’s life is not in danger, according to the news outlet People of Baikal. Local officials have reportedly spoken with the mother, the college administration, and her instructors, and they have requested her medical files.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the state has accelerated its pronatalist policies, urging women to have more children, starting at younger ages.

Continued: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/11/24/17-year-old-college-student-gives-birth-in-bathroom-stall-and-leaves-baby-wrapped-on-floor-hospitals-in-her-region-of-russia-have-stopped-offering-abortions

24.11.2025

Abortions effectively banned or restricted in nearly half of Russia’s regions

The Insider
12 November 2025

Authorities in Russia’s Smolensk Region are planning to severely restrict access to abortions in private clinics, governor Vasily Anokhin announced on Nov. 10. The official insisted the measure was only a “recommendation,” but based on the experience of other regions, such regulations make it virtually impossible for women to terminate a pregnancy absent a clear medical justification. According to The Insider’s estimates, more than 30 Russian regions now enforce either full or partial bans on abortion procedures.

The starting point for restricting abortion rights in many Russian regions has been the adoption of local laws banning the so-called “inducement to artificial termination of pregnancy.” Smolensk adopted such a law in May 2024, defining “inducement” as “taking actions or putting forward demands with the aim of compelling a pregnant woman to artificially terminate her pregnancy by persuasion, proposals, bribery, [or] deception.”

Continued: https://theins.ru/en/news/286765

12.11.2025

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abortion bans in Russia

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Russia faces a shrinking and aging population and tries restrictive laws to combat it

Katie Marie Davies, Associated Press
Nov 2, 2025

For a quarter century, President Vladimir Putin has faced the specter of Russia's shrinking and aging population. In 1999, a year before he came to power, the number of babies born in Russia plunged to its lowest recorded level. In 2005, Putin said the demographic woes needed to be resolved by maintaining "social and economic stability.”

In 2019, he said the problem still “haunted” the country. As recently as Thursday, he told a Kremlin demographic conference that increasing births was “crucial” for Russia. Putin has launched initiatives to encourage people to have more children -- from free school meals for large families to awarding Soviet-style “hero-mother” medals to women with 10 or more children.

Continued: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2025/11/02/russia-faces-a-shrinking-and-aging-population-and-tries-restrictive-laws-to-combat-it/stories/202511020020

02.11.2025

Russia Expands Bans on ‘Coercing’ Women Into Abortions to 27th Region

Oct 30, 2025
Moscow Times

Two Siberian regions have become the 26th and 27th Russian regions to adopt legislation this week banning the “coercion” of pregnant women into terminating a pregnancy amid efforts by conservative figures to expand state pressure to boost birth rates.

The neighboring Kemerovo region and Altai republic adopted laws Monday and Tuesday banning “persuasion, requests, offers, deception, bribery or other actions” aimed at encouraging a woman to have an abortion.

Exceptions apply to doctors providing medical or social reasons for abortion.

Continued: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/10/30/russia-expands-bans-on-coercing-women-into-abortions-to-27th-region-a90991

30.10.2025

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abortion coercion

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Russian Orthodox Church

Russia faces a shrinking and aging population and tries restrictive laws to combat it

Russia has grappled with a shrinking and aging population for decades, with President Vladimir Putin viewing it as a threat to national security

By KATIE MARIE DAVIES, Associated Press
October 25, 2025

For a quarter century, President Vladimir Putin has faced the specter of Russia's shrinking and aging population.

In 1999, a year before he came to power, the number of babies born in Russia plunged to its lowest recorded level. In 2005, Putin said the demographic woes needed to be resolved by maintaining "social and economic stability.”

In 2019, he said the problem still “haunted” the country.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-faces-shrinking-aging-population-restrictive-laws-combat-126856077

25.10.2025

Abortion ban in Russia: unofficially in force?

Amidst the war and the difficult demographic situation in Russia, pressure on women is increasing

Sep 12, 2025
Deutsche Welle

The authorities in Russia are in fact continuing to restrict women's access to abortions. Under pressure from the state, private clinics are increasingly refusing the procedure for terminating pregnancy or delaying it. In the Murmansk region, for example, there is an unofficial ban on medical abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, human rights activists report. After this period, women are left with only the more traumatic methods: vacuum aspiration or curettage.

This is happening against the backdrop of the worsening demographic situation in Russia. After May of this year, the Russian authorities stopped publishing demographic statistics. Shortly before that, the independent analyst and former expert at "Rosstat" Alexey Raksha announced that in March, an absolute record number of births was set in Russia since such statistics were kept at the end of the 18th century.

Continued: https://fakti.bg/en/world/999830-abortion-ban-in-russia-unofficially-in-force

12.09.2025

religion and abortion

Russian Municipality

Russian Orthodox Church

Russian convent hands out plastic fetuses to women in anti-abortion campaign

July 30, 2025

A convent in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk recently organized a campaign of handing out plastic fetuses to local women in an effort to discourage abortions, according to the independent outlet 7×7.

The initiative was held in shopping centers, libraries, at city festivals, and on university campuses. Volunteers and activists from the Odigitrievsky Convent claimed afterwards that their efforts had “saved 658 lives,” a local Telegram news channel reported.

Continued: https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/07/30/russian-convent-hands-out-plastic-fetuses-to-women-in-anti-abortion-campaign

30.07.2025

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‘Give Me a Choice’: Activists Urge Russian Doctors to Defend Women’s Right to Abortion

July 17, 2025
Alexander Avilov / Moskva News Agency

Activists are appealing to Russian doctors to protect abortion rights for women as authorities across Russia continue to clamp down on access to the procedure.

“Don’t take part in propaganda. Don’t forget that abortion is still legal in Russia. Don’t delay the process. Help women carry out their choice,” Feminist Anti-War Resistance, a group founded in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, urged medical professionals in the digital campaign, called Give Me a Choice.

Continued: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/17/give-me-a-choice-activists-urge-russian-doctors-to-defend-womens-right-to-abortion-a89858

17.07.2025

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Feminist Anti-War Resistance

Give Me a Choice campaign

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Russian officials approve abortion propaganda ban, increase pressure on women

Darina Boykova | U. Ottawa Faculty of Law, CA
June 12, 2025

Saint Petersburg legislators approved a provincial bill Wednesday to introduce fines for “encouragement of abortions” to purportedly help create a “safe… family and motherhood informational environment” in the region.

The bill would establish an increasing fine scale for citizens, public persons, and people of legal professions for encouraging abortions. When asked why the male authors of the bill did not consult female legislators, one of them stated, “We stand on the side of protection of interests of women. We clearly understand the situations women are in.”

Continued: https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/06/russian-officials-approve-abortion-propaganda-prohibition-increase-pressure-on-women/

12.06.2025

Doctor in Russian maternity hospital fined for refusing to conduct abortion

28 April 2025
Novaya Gazeta Europe

A magistrate in the Vologda region of northwestern Russia has fined the acting chief physician of a maternity hospital 15,000 rubles (€160) for refusing a local woman an abortion, the regional courts’ press service said on Monday.

According to the court, a Vologda woman had inquired at an antenatal clinic about an abortion in February. She was sent to the Vologda city maternity hospital, where the unnamed doctor refused her request. The doctor, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, saying she had refused based on instructions from more senior management, was found guilty of a misdemeanour and issued the fine.

Continued: https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/04/28/doctor-in-russian-maternity-hospital-fined-for-refusing-to-conduct-abortion-en-news

28.04.2025