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The initiative is aimed at increasing birth rates, according to local authorities
The authorities in Russia’s Murmansk Region, located mostly north of the Arctic Circle, have proposed paying bonuses to doctors for talking their female patients out of getting abortions.
A total of 4,298 babies were born in the region between January and October 2024, which is 286 less than during the same period the previous year, according to data from the local statistics agency.
Before the New Year, Governor Andrey Chibis called decreasing birth rates “a problem and a challenge for the country as a whole and for Murmansk Region in particular,” and vowed to use a comprehensive approach to tackle it.
The proposal, which was published by the regional health ministry on Tuesday, suggests two types of incentives for medical workers to persuade women to keep their babies.
The first one amounts to 25,000 rubles (around $300) and is intended for gynecologists and obstetricians who have been trained in the psychological counseling of patients considering an abortion. In order to get the money, the doctor would not only need to make sure that the woman gives up on terminating her pregnancy before 12 weeks, but also manage her all the way until the birth of the child, the document said.
Doctors in other specialties and employees who have counseling certificates rather than medical degrees would receive bonuses of 5,000 rubles (around $60) for dissuading a pregnant woman from getting an abortion, according to the proposal.
The proposal has been made as part of “measures to prevent termination of pregnancy and increase birth rates in Murmansk Region,” it read.
Last year, authorities in Pskov Region offered medical workers 5,000 rubles for talking women out of getting abortions.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in March that “the long-time work on abortion prevention” has resulted in some 37,000 women deciding to keep their babies in 2024.
According to the Russian federal statistics agency Rosstat, there were 1.22 million births in the country in 2024, a 3.4% decrease compared to 2023, making it the worst year on record other than 1999. Rosstat forecasts that a rapid increase in the number of births in the country will only happen after 2027.
