No. 1 Kremlin Woman Hits Abortion Issue : Decries Shortage of Contraceptives; Cites Hospital Conditions

The highest-ranking woman in the Kremlin decried the chronic shortage of contraceptives in the Soviet Union today, saying it contributes to an estimated 6.5 million abortions a year.

“It is not normal when the number of abortions is about equal to the number of births,” Alexandra P. Biryukova told a news conference.

“Our complaints from women are completely well-founded concerning the number of abortions compared to the use of contraceptives,” she said.

The comments by Biryukova, a candidate member of the ruling Communist Party Politburo and a deputy premier, addressed an issue that until recently would not be discussed by the official Soviet media, much less by a top official.

But in the past two years as the society has begun to discuss openly many of the social problems it kept hidden for decades, women have protested the lack of contraceptives and sex education, and the humiliation they say they face when they seek an abortion.

Abortion is used instead of contraceptives as the main means of birth control in the Soviet Union, and Western experts estimate that the average Soviet woman has nine abortions during her child-bearing years.

The Health Ministry newspaper Meditsinskaya Gazeta, commenting on a critical shortage of condoms, said some couples are so desperate that they have turned to using children’s balloons.

“The first thing we have to do is increase production of contraceptives,” Biryukova said. “We have to improve conditions in hospitals.”

The latest salvo against the medical profession came in an article published in the weekend edition of the newspaper Moscow News.

One Woman’s Account

Yekaterina Nikolayeva wrote about standing in line at the door of a hospital operating room one recent morning, waiting for her abortion.

“What are you waiting for? Come on, don’t stare,” she quoted the doctor as saying, as he took off a pair of bloodstained rubber gloves when she entered.

“My hands started to shake, I felt scared, hurt and on the verge of tears,” she continued. “ ‘Hurry up, you! I’m sick and tired of your stupidity!’ the doctor spurred me on.”

After the abortion the doctor left for the day without checking on her, and she finally left on her own in a nightgown and robe, she said.

Nikolayeva said 600 to 700 women die every year as the result of abortions in the Russian republic, the largest of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics.

She said that 90% of all first pregnancies end in abortion and that 6.5 million abortions are performed annually in the Soviet Union.

She did cite a source for the figures, but if they are accurate they would indicate that there are about 900,000 more abortions a year in the Soviet Union than live births. A Soviet statistical reference says there were 5.6 million births in 1986.