Abortions in Moldova

Author: Ludmila Shargov, lawyer

Recently someone was telling me about a woman who had 19 abortions in her life! She explained that her husband does not like to use condoms and she herself is afraid to use hormone pills. And then I heard about a terrified Moldovan mother, who being very concerned about her own reputation in the society, forced her teenage daughter to have an abortion late in her pregnancy without caring about her health. Young girls usually do not dare to talk about their pregnancy to their parents and their boyfriends are telling them that it is ok to have an abortion even in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy.

I am sure that each of you met or heard of women who passed through this painful experience. Or… maybe you passed through an abortion yourself, or maybe right now you are considering this option.

Statistics show that 78% of Moldovan women have had two or more abortions. Six years ago, 83% of all pregnancies were terminated. The number of abortions in our country is almost equal to the number of births in every year.

The good news is that the abortion rate has been decreasing in Moldova during the last 10 years. Nevertheless Moldovan women still have more abortions than for example Estonian, Scandinavian or German women.

Why?

My opinion is that people's ignorance and lack of information about abortion make the situation in Moldova alarming.

According to the Reproductive Health Survey, the main reason for abortion remains the socio-economic situation of the family or woman - people are just too poor. More than half of the young women in Moldova has had an abortion because of low income, housing problems, unemployment, lack of education, fear of losing their jobs etc. The latter is very common, especially in newly founded commercial firms that cannot guarantee social protection of women during pregnancy or maternity leave.

Older women have abortions also because of traditional (old soviet type) thinking: "people have always made abortions, it is legal and there is nothing abnormal to it". But there is - if you look at other countries - abortions are much more rare there. The thing is that people still think of hormone birth control pills that they make them "fat and hairy". Very often we find young men, who tell their girlfriends not to take pills, because they are dangerous… Maybe it was true 20-30 years ago, but this is 21st century now, things have changed! Why are other European women using them then?

Another problem here is that birth control pills and modern contraceptive methods are just not available. People don't know where to get them. I would like to give just one example: in the end of 80ies, the Drochia regional hospital performed 1800 abortions, with no contraception available. Ten years later, in 1998, the same hospital distributed 3941 cycles of birth control pills, and in 2000, doctors at the hospital performed only 20 abortions. This is a very positive example.

And do you know the reason of the positive decrease in abortion rate in Moldova within the last decade? It was established that nearly half of all sexually active women started to use modern contraception. Maybe they realized that abortions just were not human way to control birth rate.

Let's compare Moldova to other states

Well, each state has its own practice in this regard. There are states, which are more tolerant towards recognition of the right to abortion, such as Moldova, and states, which are very restrictive in what concerns grounds for performing a legal abortion, such as Poland and other catholic states.

Moldova presently is one of the first countries in the former Soviet Union on abortion rates. If we compare Moldova with Germany, for example, - young Moldovan women between 20 and 25 have still 3-4 times more abortions! If we compare Moldova with Russia, situation here seems to be improving - gradually but steadily, Russia holding one of the highest rates of abortion in the world - three out of five pregnancies end in abortion! On average, each Russian woman has more than three abortions in her lifetime.

Since Moldova's independence, abortion rate in our country fell more than twice (from 74.8 abortions per 1000 women in 1990 to 30.8 in 1998). It is a positive result, but still lags behind such countries as, for example, Belgium - where the abortion rate is 6 per 1000 or Germany - 8 abortions per 1000 women.

Moldova is very liberal towards abortions especially when we compare our country to, for example, Ireland. It should first be mentioned that Constitution of Ireland guarantees the equal right to life to both the mother and the unborn child. The only ground for abortion is risk to life of women.

Let's look at abortions from legal point of view

Have you ever asked yourself whether an unborn child has any rights at all? You are well aware that the first right guaranteed by the Constitution of Moldova is the right to life. However when does the right to life start?

In Moldova, the right to life starts from the moment when the child makes his first breath. Therefore, an unborn child is not viewed as a person, he is not taken as an individual, he does not have the right to life and subsequently a woman can freely decide to have an abortion.

I find the legislation of Moldova in this field to be quite controversial. Moldovan laws allow pregnant women, who work in harmful conditions to change their jobs, the law restricts them from using alcohol and drugs during pregnancy (in order not to harm the baby), law also tells them to follow unconditionally medical instructions aimed at ensuring normal development of the fetus. On the other hand, Moldovan women can freely decide on killing the unborn child! The laws therefore impose an obligation on women not to damage the child and ensure birth of a healthy child and on the other hand recognize the right of women not to allow the baby to be born at all!

When is abortion legal?

An abortion is legal in Moldova, when there is consent of the pregnant woman and when it is performed by a licensed physician in a hospital or other recognized medical institution. Abortions therefore cannot be performed in private clinics. Since 1996 abortion is paid by women, the cost of abortion varying from 100 to 150 lei. At the same time, the cost of the most expensive contraception is close to 80-90 lei. Therefore contraception is not only safer, but also cheaper and it is always better to prevent pregnancy, than interrupt it.

Abortion in Moldova is available on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Thereafter, abortion is available within 28 weeks from conception on a number of medical and socio-economic grounds, as well as for personal reasons with the special authorization of a commission of local physicians.

Presently, Moldova has one of the broadest lists of grounds for abortions performed on request of women: death of the husband during the pregnancy, pregnancy following rape, imprisonment of the pregnant woman or her husband, divorce during pregnancy, child disability in the family, deprivation of maternity rights, social or economic reasons or when the number of children in the family exceeds five.

Situation is other countries

In Cyprus, Israel, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, abortion laws are still very restrictive, allowing abortion only in cases of rape or fetal impairment, or to protect a woman's physical or mental health. Access to abortion has also been restricted in Hungary with changes in the law.

In most of the countries, parents should give their consent in order for their minor daughter to have an abortion. The age limit ranges from 14 in Austria, to 16 in Moldova, the Netherlands, Georgia, Ukraine, Norway, to 18 in Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary. It is interesting to mention that Turkey is the only country in the region where women cannot do an abortion, if their husbands do not agree on this. And it does not matter what is the age of the women, 16 or 46!!!

Persons who perform an abortion illegally are subject to criminal penalties established by the new Criminal Code of Moldova. Illegal performance of abortion is punished by a fine of 200 - 500 conventional units (1 c.u. is equal to 20 lei) or by imprisonment for up to 10 years. What exactly is illegal abortion? This is the interruption of the pregnancy when committed:

A woman who had an illegal abortion is not penalized.

Therefore, if conditions imposed by law are respected, no one can prohibit a woman from doing an abortion. In the eyes of law she didn't do anything bad. It is sad…

Why is it bad to have abortions?

Well, of course it is up to you what you are doing with your body, but… Abortion is an operation. Every operation is in fact great risk to your health - it is not natural. Besides, abortion shows the overall attitudes toward one's own body - if you really care about yourself, you would do anything in order to avoid operation such as abortion. There are many possibilities here that should be considered instead of abortion. You can find out more about it in the contraceptive section of the "Iubire.md".

Besides, using a simple contraceptive method like condoms gives you another type of protection as well - it protects you against different types of diseases, which are transmitted sexually. Sometimes you haven't even thought about these possibilities.

Only very small share of women (6%) use condoms in Moldova and this is the century when AIDS is spreading with awful speed! According to a survey conducted by the Family Planning Association of Moldova, one third of young people (aged 14-17) who have had sex do not protect themselves against pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Only 12.8% of all young people in Moldova use a condom during their first sexual intercourse. Most young people have unprotected sex in their first sexual encounter. Consequently, they currently comprise 15.4% of all registered HIV-positive cases!!!

The bad thing is that in many regions in Moldova there is no sexual education at all. It would be good if lessons on sexual education were compulsory at every school. In Scandinavian countries, for example, such classes are compulsory already for several decades, and the abortion rate is so much lower.

There should also be considered a number of other options, more human ways to control birth: high-quality modern contraceptives are available today!!!

We, here in iubire.md, are really happy to try to help everybody who has questions, concerns or who needs an advice. You are therefore always welcome to contact us and our specialists, gynecologists, counselors and lawyer will be at your disposal.