Russia's Health Minister Called for Reduction in Abortions: Population Growth Too Low

By Patrick B. Craine

MOSCOW, Russia, January 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Russia's Health Minister has called for a reduction of abortions in the country as a way of improving its meagre population growth.

"The topic of reducing abortions is definitely on today's agenda,” stated Health Minister Tatyana Golikova on Monday. “This won't solve the birthrate problem 100 percent, but around 20 to 30 percent."

In 2006, then-President Vladimir Putin identified the country's low birth rate as its greatest problem, though he did not draw the connection with the country's abortion rate, which is among the highest in the world. In 2005, in fact, there were more abortions than births in the country. On Monday, Golikova noted that in 2008 there were 1.714 million births and 1.234 million abortions.

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