Russian doctor fined for refusing to commit abortion

A doctor has been fined for refusing to commit an abortion in the Vologda region of northwestern Russia. A chief physician who instructed another doctor not to commit the abortion was also fined 15,000 rubles ($183).

According to a press release, a 39-year-old woman learned she was pregnant, but she did not want to have a baby. She spoke to a psychologist, underwent an ultrasound, and allegedly “passed the necessary tests and received a referral to a medical institution” for the abortion at Vologda City Maternity Hospital.

“But on February 25,” she said, “when I arrived at the hospital on Pirogov Street, I was refused.”

Abortion is legal in Russia through 12 weeks of pregnancy and until 22 weeks for cases of rape. Prior to 2023, abortion had been allowed until 22 weeks for “social reasons” such as divorce, unemployment, or income, according to AP News.

After she was refused the abortion, the woman wrote a complaint to the chief doctor and left the hospital. “Referring to the oral order of the regional Ministry of Health banning abortions in the Vologda region, as well as moral and religious considerations, they refused to do the abortion,” she said. The following day, she had an abortion at a different facility.

However, she later contacted the prosecutor’s office and Vologda City Maternity Hospital and papers were filed with a court. It was determined that a doctor did not commit the abortion on the instruction of the chief doctor, and the court determined that the chief doctor was in the wrong for not allowing the requested abortion to be carried out.

READ: Lawmakers in Russian region advance law to ban abortion coercion

The court found the acting chief physician guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 2 Art. 19.20 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. According to the press release, this means “carrying out activities not related to making a profit, in violation of the requirements and conditions provided for by a special permit (license), if such a permit is required.”

An administrative offence is considered an unlawful action or inaction by an individual or legal entity. According to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, it exists to “be the protection of the person, of human and civil rights and fredoms, of citizen’s health, of the sanitary-and-epidemiological well-being of the population, the defence of public morals, protection of the environment, of the established procedure of the lawful interests of natural persons and legal entities, society and the stat from administrative offences, as well as the prevention of administrative offences.”

The number of abortions in Russia declined from 4.1 million in 1990 to 517,000 in 2021, though amid the Ukraine war, sales of abortion pills in 2022 were up 60%, according to Nikolay Bespalove, development director of the RNC Pharma analytical company. While sales dropped 35% in 2023, they remained higher than the pre-2022 numbers.