Journal articles on the topic 'The National Abortion Federation'

The research featured the decline of legitimate birth rate in the context of the transformation that family institution is currently undergoing. According to the Demography National project of the Russian Federation, the key objective of the national demographic policy is to increase the number of children up to 1.7 per woman. The authors believe that it is impossible to achieve the target indicator without revealing the institutional capacity of the so-called traditional family, which has a lower the level of birth control by abortion and contraception. In order to determine the institutional capacity of the national project, the authors estimated the legitimate birth rate and the level of birth control by the population. The methods involved the Coale-Trussell’s model, which is based on the assumption that controlled birth rate deviates from natural birth rate. The study was based on the data about the number of births in 2017. The data were obtained from twelve Siberian regions and included such information as maternal age and legitimacy. The Coale-Trussell’s model revealed a good institutional capacity that can enhance the demographic function of the family and increase the birth rate.

В настоящее время мировая общественность с каждым днем всё больше отходит от традиционных христианских ценностей, выдвигает и принимает зачастую прямо антихристианские законопроекты. Современная политика Российской Федерации направлена на сохранение традиционных ценностей (11 пункт из Стратегии национальной безопасности РФ). В рамках возрождения духовно-нравственных ценностей остаётся неприемлемым наличие законодательства, легализующего детоубийство. Между тем, уже в Древней Церкви мы встречаем неоднократные постановления различных уровней, регламентирующие церковные епитимии для женщин, совершивших аборт, и тех, кто тем или иным образом был причастен к этому. И уже в новейшей истории Церковь реагируют на вызовы времени, рассматривает прежний опыт и издаёт новые постановления и документы. Современная официальная позиция Русской Православной Церкви на различные проблемы биоэтики, в частности аборта, излагается в «Основах социальной концепции», принятой Архиерейским собором Русской Православной Церкви 2000 г. Целью данной статьи является наиболее подробное рассмотрение канонов, посвящённых греху детоубийства, а также современной позиции Русской Православной Церкви, изложенной в «Основах социальной концепции». В ходе исследования автор проводит сравнительный анализ подходов известных канонистов, пытается проследить историческую мотивацию к принятию подобных постановлений и рассматривает современный взгляд и практику епитимий для людей, прямо или косвенно причастных к греху аборта. At present, the world community is increasingly moving away from traditional Christian values, putting forward and adopting, often directly anti Christian bills. The current pol icy of the Russian Federation is aimed at preserving traditional values? (paragraph 11 from the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation). Within the revival of spiritual and moralvalues, the existence of legislation legalizing infanticide remains unacceptable. Meanwhile, in the Ancient Church already we meet repeated resolutions of various levels regulating church penances for women who had got an abortion as well as for those who had been involved in it some how. And in recent history the Church responds to the time challenges, examines past experiences and issues new resolutions and documents. The Russian Orthodox Church’s current official position on various issues of bioethics, abortion in particular, is set out in the “Foundations of a Social Concept” adopted by the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. The purpose of this article is the most detailed consideration of the canons dedicated to the sin of infanticide, as well as the current position of the Russian Orthodox Church set out in the “Foundations of a Social Concept”. In the course of the study, the author conducts a comparative analysis of famous canonists’ approaches, tries to trace the historical motivation for the adoption of such decisions and examines the modern view and practice of penance for people directly or indirectly in volved in the sin of abortion.

Today, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are a birth rate factor, which allows almost every person to give birth to a child, regardless of health. Fully reliable gender selection is only possible through pre-implantation diagnostics (PGD) as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Usually preference is given to boys, and the problem turns from individual family into a socio-gender problem, which can only be solved at the state level. While traditional methods of gender regulation involved selective abortions or killing of newborns («infanticide»), modern ART technically solves the issue at the pre-implantation stage, but entails ethical, psychological and financial problems that require special control. By prohibiting sex-selective abortions, the state limits the possibility of gender choice at the stage of conception to the risk of inherited diseases transmission due to fears of seriously disturbing natural gender balance, creating prerequisites for «genomocide». According to the National ART registries, Surveys of the International Federation of Fertility Societies for 2010–2019, Russian and foreign «hospital» statistics and the media, the article shows increase in the popularity of PGD that makes it possible to make a gender choice. In Russia, where the number of children in a family rarely exceeds two, and reproductive clinics perform all IVF programs, the choice of child’s gender is possible only with medically-justified PGD, and almost always performed at the expense of the patient. The only perspective in this situation is inclusion of such a PGD in the Compulsory Health Insurance system, when the gender of an unborn child becomes an additional, and its health — the main result.

Introduction. The study was conducted to identify the main trends in reproductive, maternal, and newborn’s health to justify additional measures to achieve sustainable demographic development of industrial regions in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF). Material and methods. The study was carried out using reporting and statistical materials characterizing the main demographic and health statistics of the reproductive health in the female population of Vorkutinsky municipal district (16 settlements), summarized in the “Demographic Yearbook of the Komi Republic” (2015-2019), and the annual reports of medical organizations providing obstetric and gynaecological medical care to the population of Vorkuta. Results. As in many other areas of the Russian Arctic, in the city of Vorkuta, there were observed: a population decline from 60.4 in 2015 to 54.2 thousand people in 2019, a decrease in the number of women at reproductive age from 19.9 to 19.2 thousand people, as well as a significant increase in the frequency of preterm birth (PB) (from 2,2% to 8,4%) mainly due urogenital infection (42,3%), chronic placental insufficiency (CPF) (27%), multiple pregnancies (11,5%), preeclampsia (7,7%), cervical incompetence (7,7%), uterine scar inconsistency (3,8%). The incidence of PB among primiparous women was significantly lower than that among multiparous women - 34.6% and 65.3%, respectively. The frequency of abortions increased from 15.4 to 20.9 per 1000 women of reproductive age, and there was an increase by 16.3% in the rate of spontaneous abortions among women 18-44 years of age at the pregnancy terms from 12 to 22 weeks. Perinatal mortality during the study period increased from 7.5 ‰ to 12.7 ‰ in 2019. (on average in Russia 7.23 ‰). The stillbirth rate was 9.5 ‰ (on average in Russia 5.51 ‰). The main cause of stillbirth in the study period was intrauterine asphyxia due to the decompensated chronic placental insufficiency. Among the possible reasons for increased fetal infantile losses is a significant proportion in the general population of the Vorkuta of workers exposed to adverse occupational risk factors (25.7% compared to 14.1% in the Russian Arctic as a whole). Conclusion. Among the population living in the area of the Pechora coal basin, the risk remains for an increase in the demographic crisis phenomena mainly due to the rise in the frequency of pregnancy disorders and, above all, a high level of fetal-infantile losses. To solve one of the main tasks of national security to prevent further depopulation of the Arctic regions, set in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation*, it is necessary besides socioeconomic measures to preserve the population number, to develop and implement programs to effectively reduce fetal-infantile losses, including those potentially associated with adverse occupational exposure to reproductive risk factors.

The Clinical Protocol “First-Trimester Medical Abortion” is written in accordance with the Russian laws on health protection, Procedure on medical care provision to women seeking for artificial termination of pregnancy, Law on drug circulation. The evidential base for the clinical protocol was constituted by the publications included in the Cochrane Library, PUBMED and MEDLINE databases, by the results of the Russian clinical studies on the medical abortion carried out with the permission of the Ethical Committee of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, by the Russian and international regulatory documents on safe abortion (FDA, HAS). The objective of these clinical protocol is to improve the quality of medical aid in the Russian Federation provided during early pregnancy termination. The comments were discussed jointly by the work group members; a consensus was reached on the key questions of the clinical protocol and practical recommendations were developed.

According to article 36 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, every woman has the right to independently decide the issue of motherhood, and in particular, about artificial termination of pregnancy. However, abortion is a rather dangerous intervention in a woman's body. Even carried out in a clinical setting by an experienced doctor, it is often accompanied by various complications, being one of the main causes of gynecological morbidity.

In my postgraduate formation during the last years of the 80’s, we had close to thirty hospital beds in a pavilion called “sépticas” (1). In Colombia, where abortion was completely penalized, the pavilion was mostly filled with women with insecure, complicated abortions. The focus we received was technical: management of intensive care; performance of hysterectomies, colostomies, bowel resection, etc. In those times, some nurses were nuns and limited themselves to interrogating the patients to get them to “confess” what they had done to themselves in order to abort. It always disturbed me that the women who left alive, left without any advice or contraceptive method. Having asked a professor of mine, he responded with disdain: “This is a third level hospital, those things are done by nurses of the first level”. Seeing so much pain and death, I decided to talk to patients, and I began to understand their decision. I still remember so many deaths with sadness, but one case in particular pains me: it was a woman close to being fifty who arrived with a uterine perforation in a state of advanced sepsis. Despite the surgery and the intensive care, she passed away. I had talked to her, and she told me she was a widow, had two adult kids and had aborted because of “embarrassment towards them” because they were going to find out that she had an active sexual life. A few days after her passing, the pathology professor called me, surprised, to tell me that the uterus we had sent for pathological examination showed no pregnancy. She was a woman in a perimenopausal state with a pregnancy exam that gave a false positive due to the high levels of FSH/LH typical of her age. SHE WAS NOT PREGNANT!!! She didn’t have menstruation because she was premenopausal and a false positive led her to an unsafe abortion. Of course, the injuries caused in the attempted abortion caused the fatal conclusion, but the real underlying cause was the social taboo in respect to sexuality. I had to watch many adolescents and young women leave the hospital alive, but without a uterus, sometime without ovaries and with colostomies, to be looked down on by a society that blamed them for deciding to not be mothers. I had to see situation of women that arrived with their intestines protruding from their vaginas because of unsafe abortions. I saw women, who in their despair, self-inflicted injuries attempting to abort with elements such as stick, branches, onion wedges, alum bars and clothing hooks among others. Among so many deaths, it was hard not having at least one woman per day in the morgue due to an unsafe abortion. During those time, healthcare was not handled from the biopsychosocial, but only from the technical (2); nonetheless, in the academic evaluations that were performed, when asked about the definition of health, we had to recite the text from the International Organization of Health that included these three aspects. How contradictory! To give response to the health need of women and guarantee their right when I was already a professor, I began an obstetric contraceptive service in that third level hospital. There was resistance from the directors, but fortunately I was able to acquire international donations for the institution, which facilitated its acceptance. I decided to undertake a teaching career with the hope of being able to sensitize health professionals towards an integral focus of health and illness. When the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo in 1994, I had already spent various years in teaching, and when I read their Action Program, I found a name for what I was working on: Sexual and Reproductive Rights. I began to incorporate the tools given by this document into my professional and teaching life. I was able to sensitize people at my countries Health Ministry, and we worked together moving it to an approach of human rights in areas of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). This new viewpoint, in addition to being integral, sought to give answers to old problems like maternal mortality, adolescent pregnancy, low contraceptive prevalence, unplanned or unwanted pregnancy or violence against women. With other sensitized people, we began with these SRH issues to permeate the Colombian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, some universities, and university hospitals. We are still fighting in a country that despite many difficulties has improved its indicators of SRH. With the experience of having labored in all sphere of these topics, we manage to create, with a handful of colleagues and friend at the Universidad El Bosque, a Master’s Program in Sexual and Reproductive Health, open to all professions, in which we broke several paradigms. A program was initiated in which the qualitative and quantitative investigation had the same weight, and some alumni of the program are now in positions of leadership in governmental and international institutions, replicating integral models. In the Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FLASOG, English acronym) and in the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO), I was able to apply my experience for many years in the SRH committees of these association to benefit women and girls in the regional and global environments. When I think of who has inspired me in these fights, I should highlight the great feminist who have taught me and been with me in so many fights. I cannot mention them all, but I have admired the story of the life of Margaret Sanger with her persistence and visionary outlook. She fought throughout her whole life to help the women of the 20th century to be able to obtain the right to decide when and whether or not they wanted to have children (3). Of current feminist, I have had the privilege of sharing experiences with Carmen Barroso, Giselle Carino, Debora Diniz and Alejandra Meglioli, leaders of the International Planned Parenthood Federation – Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-RHO). From my country, I want to mention my countrywoman Florence Thomas, psychologist, columnist, writer and Colombo-French feminist. She is one of the most influential and important voices in the movement for women rights in Colombia and the region. She arrived from France in the 1960’s, in the years of counterculture, the Beatles, hippies, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre, a time in which capitalism and consumer culture began to be criticized (4). It was then when they began to talk about the female body, female sexuality and when the contraceptive pill arrived like a total revolution for women. Upon its arrival in 1967, she experimented a shock because she had just assisted in a revolution and only found a country of mothers, not women (5). That was the only destiny for a woman, to be quiet and submissive. Then she realized that this could not continue, speaking of “revolutionary vanguards” in such a patriarchal environment. In 1986 with the North American and European feminism waves and with her academic team, they created the group “Mujer y Sociedad de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, incubator of great initiatives and achievements for the country (6). She has led great changes with her courage, the strength of her arguments, and a simultaneously passionate and agreeable discourse. Among her multiple books, I highlight “Conversaciones con Violeta” (7), motivated by the disdain towards feminism of some young women. She writes it as a dialogue with an imaginary daughter in which, in an intimate manner, she reconstructs the history of women throughout the centuries and gives new light of the fundamental role of feminism in the life of modern women. Another book that shows her bravery is “Había que decirlo” (8), in which she narrates the experience of her own abortion at age twenty-two in sixty’s France. My work experience in the IPPF-RHO has allowed me to meet leaders of all ages in diverse countries of the region, who with great mysticism and dedication, voluntarily, work to achieve a more equal and just society. I have been particularly impressed by the appropriation of the concept of sexual and reproductive rights by young people, and this has given me great hope for the future of the planet. We continue to have an incomplete agenda of the action plan of the ICPD of Cairo but seeing how the youth bravely confront the challenges motivates me to continue ahead and give my years of experience in an intergenerational work. In their policies and programs, the IPPF-RHO evidences great commitment for the rights and the SRH of adolescent, that are consistent with what the organization promotes, for example, 20% of the places for decision making are in hands of the young. Member organizations, that base their labor on volunteers, are true incubators of youth that will make that unassailable and necessary change of generations. In contrast to what many of us experienced, working in this complicated agenda of sexual and reproductive health without theoretical bases, today we see committed people with a solid formation to replace us. In the college of medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the College of Nursing at the Universidad El Bosque, the new generations are more motivated and empowered, with great desire to change the strict underlying structures. Our great worry is the onslaught of the ultra-right, a lot of times better organized than us who do support rights, that supports anti-rights group and are truly pro-life (9). Faced with this scenario, we should organize ourselves better, giving battle to guarantee the rights of women in the local, regional, and global level, aggregating the efforts of all pro-right organizations. We are now committed to the Objectives of Sustainable Development (10), understood as those that satisfy the necessities of the current generation without jeopardizing the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own necessities. This new agenda is based on: - The unfinished work of the Millennium Development Goals - Pending commitments (international environmental conventions) - The emergent topics of the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental. We now have 17 objectives of sustainable development and 169 goals (11). These goals mention “universal access to reproductive health” many times. In objective 3 of this list is included guaranteeing, before the year 2030, “universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including those of family planning, information, and education.” Likewise, objective 5, “obtain gender equality and empower all women and girls”, establishes the goal of “assuring the universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in conformity with the action program of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Action Platform of Beijing”. It cannot be forgotten that the term universal access to sexual and reproductive health includes universal access to abortion and contraception. Currently, 830 women die every day through preventable maternal causes; of these deaths, 99% occur in developing countries, more than half in fragile environments and in humanitarian contexts (12). 216 million women cannot access modern contraception methods and the majority live in the nine poorest countries in the world and in a cultural environment proper to the decades of the seventies (13). This number only includes women from 15 to 49 years in any marital state, that is to say, the number that takes all women into account is much greater. Achieving the proposed objectives would entail preventing 67 million unwanted pregnancies and reducing maternal deaths by two thirds. We currently have a high, unsatisfied demand for modern contraceptives, with extremely low use of reversible, long term methods (intrauterine devices and subdermal implants) which are the most effect ones with best adherence (14). There is not a single objective among the 17 Objectives of Sustainable Development where contraception does not have a prominent role: from the first one that refers to ending poverty, going through the fifth one about gender equality, the tenth of inequality reduction among countries and within the same country, until the sixteenth related with peace and justice. If we want to change the world, we should procure universal access to contraception without myths or barriers. We have the moral obligation of achieving the irradiation of extreme poverty and advancing the construction of more equal, just, and happy societies. In emergency contraception (EC), we are very far from reaching expectations. If in reversible, long-term methods we have low prevalence, in EC the situation gets worse. Not all faculties in the region look at this topic, and where it is looked at, there is no homogeneity in content, not even within the same country. There are still myths about their real action mechanisms. There are countries, like Honduras, where it is prohibited and there is no specific medicine, the same case as in Haiti. Where it is available, access is dismal, particularly among girls, adolescents, youth, migrants, afro-descendent, and indigenous. The multiple barriers for the effective use of emergency contraceptives must be knocked down, and to work toward that we have to destroy myths and erroneous perceptions, taboos and cultural norms; achieve changes in laws and restrictive rules within countries, achieve access without barriers to the EC; work in union with other sectors; train health personnel and the community. It is necessary to transform the attitude of health personal to a service above personal opinion. Reflecting on what has occurred after the ICPD in Cairo, their Action Program changed how we look at the dynamics of population from an emphasis on demographics to a focus on the people and human rights. The governments agreed that, in this new focus, success was the empowerment of women and the possibility of choice through expanded access to education, health, services, and employment among others. Nonetheless, there have been unequal advances and inequality persists in our region, all the goals were not met, the sexual and reproductive goals continue beyond the reach of many women (15). There is a long road ahead until women and girls of the world can claim their rights and liberty of deciding. Globally, maternal deaths have been reduced, there is more qualified assistance of births, more contraception prevalence, integral sexuality education, and access to SRH services for adolescents are now recognized rights with great advances, and additionally there have been concrete gains in terms of more favorable legal frameworks, particularly in our region; nonetheless, although it’s true that the access condition have improved, the restrictive laws of the region expose the most vulnerable women to insecure abortions. There are great challenges for governments to recognize SRH and the DSR as integral parts of health systems, there is an ample agenda against women. In that sense, access to SRH is threatened and oppressed, it requires multi-sector mobilization and litigation strategies, investigation and support for the support of women’s rights as a multi-sector agenda. Looking forward, we must make an effort to work more with youth to advance not only the Action Program of the ICPD, but also all social movements. They are one of the most vulnerable groups, and the biggest catalyzers for change. The young population still faces many challenges, especially women and girls; young girls are in particularly high risk due to lack of friendly and confidential services related with sexual and reproductive health, gender violence, and lack of access to services. In addition, access to abortion must be improved; it is the responsibility of states to guarantee the quality and security of this access. In our region there still exist countries with completely restrictive frameworks. New technologies facilitate self-care (16), which will allow expansion of universal access, but governments cannot detach themselves from their responsibility. Self-care is expanding in the world and can be strategic for reaching the most vulnerable populations. There are new challenges for the same problems, that require a re-interpretation of the measures necessary to guaranty the DSR of all people, in particular women, girls, and in general, marginalized and vulnerable populations. It is necessary to take into account migrations, climate change, the impact of digital media, the resurgence of hate discourse, oppression, violence, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, and other emergent problems, as SRH should be seen within a framework of justice, not isolated. We should demand accountability of the 179 governments that participate in the ICPD 25 years ago and the 193 countries that signed the Sustainable Development Objectives. They should reaffirm their commitments and expand their agenda to topics not considered at that time. Our region has given the world an example with the Agreement of Montevideo, that becomes a blueprint for achieving the action plan of the CIPD and we should not allow retreat. This agreement puts people at the center, especially women, and includes the topic of abortion, inviting the state to consider the possibility of legalizing it, which opens the doors for all governments of the world to recognize that women have the right to choose on maternity. This agreement is much more inclusive: Considering that the gaps in health continue to abound in the region and the average statistics hide the high levels of maternal mortality, of sexually transmitted diseases, of infection by HIV/AIDS, and the unsatisfied demand for contraception in the population that lives in poverty and rural areas, among indigenous communities, and afro-descendants and groups in conditions of vulnerability like women, adolescents and incapacitated people, it is agreed: 33- To promote, protect, and guarantee the health and the sexual and reproductive rights that contribute to the complete fulfillment of people and social justice in a society free of any form of discrimination and violence. 37- Guarantee universal access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, taking into consideration the specific needs of men and women, adolescents and young, LGBT people, older people and people with incapacity, paying particular attention to people in a condition of vulnerability and people who live in rural and remote zone, promoting citizen participation in the completing of these commitments. 42- To guarantee, in cases in which abortion is legal or decriminalized in the national legislation, the existence of safe and quality abortion for non-desired or non-accepted pregnancies and instigate the other States to consider the possibility of modifying public laws, norms, strategies, and public policy on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy to save the life and health of pregnant adolescent women, improving their quality of life and decreasing the number of abortions (17).

This literature review of articles devoted to the problem of abortion and pre-abortion counseling has been carried out. The legal features of the development of the right to abortion at the request of a woman are outlined. The main stages in the development of the concept of perinatal psychology and pre-abortion counseling are described. The procedure for conducting pre-abortion counseling in the Russian Federation has been studied. The effectiveness of the existing algorithm was assessed and the prospects for further research aimed at studying and improving the effectiveness of pre-abortion counseling were outlined.

Criminal law is often described as the field of law that expresses the strongest national characteristics of a given jurisdiction and is the least amenable to change. Naturally, social rules providing some kind of penalty when violated have existed throughout the history of mankind. In Europe, the current understanding of criminal law has been shaped by Enlightenment thought, the ideas of human rights, liberalism and finally the national movements which led, inter alia, to the famous codifications of criminal law of the 19th century. In Russia, criminal law has certainly (not been isolated from the developments that took place in 19th century Europe. For example, the abolition of corporal punishment is but one good marker of humanisation. But compared to Europe, codified criminal law in Russia has been much less understood as the magna charta of the offender (Franz von Liszt), eventually leading to the study of human rights in criminal law. Rather, it has been viewed as the expression of the Tsars unfettered power to mete out punishment, - a line of thinking which indicates the continuing difficulty in Russian criminal law doctrine to accept limitations on the power of the legislator to criminalize. This paper will not deal with Russian doctrinal approaches to criminal law in a direct way. Instead, its purpose is to demonstrate the European Unions (EUs) current thinking on the effects that human rights have on the development of criminal law. As of today, criminal law is under a variety of influences among which the changing understanding of human rights is a very important one. In the Western world, there is a large amount of literature dealing with human rights and criminal law in general1 [1; 2], and it is hardly possible to come to an overall systematization. To be sure, there are parts of criminal law which have experienced very little change in light of human rights. One central tenet of human rights, for example, is the equality of men2 (in a pre-modern reading to include also women) which leads to the criminalization of slavery, slave trade, forced labor and trafficking in human beings. The smuggling of humans, on the other hand, is a much more controversial topic due to the fact that states show a strong desire to criminalize irregular migration. Another pillar of human rights is the human right to property3 which informs a whole range of criminal law provisions for violations of the right to property on land (theft, robbery, etc.) and on water (piracy). By comparison, the right to life is a more difficult concept. Human rights are behind the global drive for abolishing the death penalty4, but a number of other life-related issues are determined less by human rights than by religious and ethical views, such as the criminalization of abortion, aiding and abetting suicide, and euthanasia. Finally, a number of human rights are experiencing a very lively debate, e.g. freedom of speech5 [3] and freedom of religion, consequently there is also a high impact on the development of criminal law. European criminal law, understood as the total of the harmonized national criminal law systems of the EU Member states, offers a good example to study the effects of human rights. In the literature, there is the argument that changes in the understanding of human rights can lead both to criminalization and to de-criminalization. This has also been described as the «sword» function of human rights (using human rights to call for criminalization) and the «shield» function (using human rights law to call for limits to the use of criminal law and even de-criminalization) [1]. Both functions can be observed in a nutshell when analyzing the European criminal law that has emerged in the course of the last decade. For Russia, this article represents a (hopefully timely) contribution to the still nascent discussion on the effects of human rights on criminal law. Despite the Preamble to the newly adopted Constitution of the Russian Federation (RF) which affirms the role of human rights, Article 15 (4) Constitution RF limits the direct impact of human rights law to the universally accepted norms and principles of international law as well as to treaties concluded by the RF. The Constitution therefore appears to be closing the door to cutting-edge developments in international human rights law which are still not universally accepted.

Abortion in Russia is an urgent problem with high medical and social significance due to high prevalence and significant contribution to reproductive losses, maternal mortality and gynecological morbidity. Aim. To assess the dynamics and pattern of abortion in Russia for 2008-2015. Material and methods. The official statistics were analyzed using the descriptive statistic methods. Results. Between 2008 and 2015, the total number of abortions decreased by 39,6%. The number of social abortions has decreased the most — by 96,7%, criminal abortions — by 87,0%, medical (legal) abortions — by 53,8%, unspecified abortions — by 40,5%, therapeutic abortions — by 9,7%. The number of spontaneous abortions, on the contrary, increased by 34,6%. Conclusion. Despite the fact that number of abortions has decreased, it remains high. Moreover, the prevalence of spontaneous abortions has increased. At the same time, the proportion of spontaneous abortions in pregnancies resulted in births in 2015 amounted to 12,3%. It indicates an increase in their prevalence and contribution to female fertility defects.

Analyses of American public opinion about abortion rarely consider what light other cases might shed on the U.S. controversy. This paper argues that there are striking parallels between the politics of abortion in the U.S. and Canada. These parallels extend beyond courts and interest groups; they also apply to public opinion. Gallup data indicate aggregate similarities in how both publics view the legalization of abortion in the last fifteen years, and World Values Survey data show that Americans and Canadians hold similar views about abortion even when the controversy is lifted out of its legal context. Probit analysis demonstrates that the same variables similarly predict where these publics stand on abortion when health and discretionary aspects of the debate are taken into account. Postmaterialist value orientations may provide important clues about what future direction the abortion debate in the U.S. may take.

Anaesthesiologists are vital to abortion access in the US. An online survey of 215 anaesthesiology residents assessed attitudes towards abortion. Among the surveyed residents, first-trimester abortion was more acceptable than second-trimester abortion (P < 0.001). Few respondents objected to abortion in cases of fetal anomalies or maternal health indications. Further, 77.3% of surveyed residents reported past participation in abortion procedures, including 77.8% of residents with objections to abortion in some circumstances. Anaesthesiology residents who are female, childless and non-religious were more likely to find first-trimester abortion acceptable.

ABSTRACT Objective: Induced abortion is widely practiced in China. However, the information on induced abortion is limited. A national cross-sectional survey was designed to determine the risk factors of induced abortion among Chinese women with one child. Methods: We sampled 16,881 Chinese women with one living child for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect induced abortion and related health information. The National Research Institute for Family Planning of China conducted a cross-sectional study among women who had delivered a baby between 2006 and 2008. Information was collected in relation to demographic characteristics (age, ethnicity, region, area etc.), social economic status (education level and occupation), marriage, and the attitude towards potential child’s gender. Multi-logistic regression was used to test potential predictors for conducting abortion stratified by consistency between gender preference and current infants’ gender, and indicating adjusted estimation on selected models of risk factors for abortion. Results: The mean age of participants was 27.96 ± 4.10 years (median 27 years). Among those women, the prevalence of induced abortion was 8.13 %. In the final model, females living in rural areas (OR = 1.21, 95 %CI: 1.04-1.39), individuals ages 18-25 (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.72-0.99), individuals ages 30 or older (OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.42-1.86), and single individuals (OR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.05-2.83) were more likely to experience induced abortion. Wife gender preference (OR = 0.66, 95 %CI: 0.53-0.83), husband gender preference (Boy: OR = 1.33, 95 %CI: 1.10-1.63; Girl: OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.22-1.86), and the area where the individuals were located were significantly associated with the reporting of induced abortion. Conclusion: The prevalence of induced abortion is high among married women with child in China. There are also socio-demographic characteristics associated with induced abortion in China.

The subject of this research is the key changes in the institutional provision of national security. The object of this research is the national security management. Provision of national security is an inextricable element of state administration. The article examines the system of views that reflect state&rsquo;s position on the question of national security protection, presented in the legislative acts, conceptual and strategic documents considering amendments thereto. The goal of this study consists in determination of transformation of approach of the government of the Russian Federation towards ensuring national security. Federal laws, conceptual and strategic documents of the Russian Federation served as the information base for this research. The scientific novelty consists in systematization of approaches of the state towards understanding of boundaries and organization of national security protection of the Russian Federation. The conducted retrospective analysis allows tracing the changes in approaches of the states towards ensuring national security, observing the transformation of government&rsquo;s priorities within and outside the country, as well as determining interdependence of the system of national security protection and its structure on the power of state&rsquo;s authority and the status of development of administration in the Russian Federation. The overall conclusion of this research lies in the statement that the system of national security management is dynamic; its transformation depends on the international relations and factors outside the Russian Federation, as well as on the level of development and stability of the national system of administration.

The paper is devoted to the issues of definition of concepts of national projects, and financing. The author provides their definition based on the analysis of domestic and foreign literature. National projects are understood to be relatively new tools for the target-program management. the author describes the modern system of financing of national projects and some modern trends in its development. Also, the paper demonstrates the balance between the concepts “financing”, “lending”, “investing”. The conclusion is made about the need for integrated use of these economic and legal institutions in the financing of national projects. The author substantiates a socially useful effect of national projects, which should be higher than the costs of their implementation. Differential approaches to the financing of individual national projects depending on the sources of funds are shown. Also, the author describes the structure of funding sources; the fundamental basis of relevant activity; the degree of reliability and stability of the main sources. The paper describes some mechanisms to ensure the flexibility and mobility of national projects’ financing.

INTRODUCTION: Unsafe abortion accounts for about 12% of maternal deaths in Brazil, although many of these women could meet the requirements for legal abortion in this country. Physicians' inappropriate knowledge of the law may be playing a role in this situation. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate which factors are associated with the level of information and the opinion of the Brazilian gynecologists-obstetricians concerning abortion laws. METHODS: Questionnaires (14.320) were sent to all physicians affiliated to the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations (FEBRASGO), and 30.2% were returned completed. RESULTS: Most of respondents showed a good knowledge of the situations in which abortion is allowed but not about the documents required to carry out a legal abortion. However, most of them knew about the need for a judicial order in case of abortion of malformed fetus. Knowledge was associated with age, number of children and years of practice. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Poor knowledge on the requirements to carry out an abortion within the law may be a main factor responsible for the lack of access to legal abortion in Brazil.

The article discusses the issues of control over the expenditure of funds in the implementation of national goals. The author refers to the documents that regulate this area of activity, connects their main provisions with public administration, shows how the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation participates in the audit of budget expenditures and thereby contributes to the sustainable development of the country, the formation of effective public administration systems. In 2019, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation analyzed the progress of 8 of 13 national projects and identified significant risks that affect the achievement of the planned results. The audit results indicate systemic management weaknesses. Based on the analysis, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation offered the Government of the Russian Federation to transform the internal financial audit of chief administrators of budget funds into an internal audit of the activities of state bodies. Regarding the main goal-setting of the internal audit, it is proposed to determine the tasks of analyzing the achievement of goals and assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the use of budget funds. The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation has proposed to the Government of the Russian Federation to transform the internal financial audit of chief administrators of budget funds into an internal audit of the activities of state bodies. The author emphasizes that only an effective multi-level audit system will not only raise the implementation of national projects to the proper level, but also make a significant contribution to the achievement of the country's sustainable development goals. Combining the efforts of all interested parties will allow us to adequately meet the challenges of the time and ensure high-quality achievement of national goals set by the President of the Russian Federation.

AbstractThe subjective correlates of abortion attitudes for six different religious traditions (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam). For all six groups, attitudes toward sexual morality exhibit the strongest relationship with abortion attitudes, followed by the effects of attitudes toward human life. Gender role attitudes are much less powerful predictors of abortion attitudes. Further, the multivariate models which explain abortion attitudes are remarkably similar across religious traditions, with inter-religious differences largely being attributable to differences in the marginal distributions of the independent variables.