In Armenia, Abortion Rates are High and Access to Contraception is Limited

By OBOS | February 6, 2013

Taleen K. Moughamian, a women’s health nurse practitioner in Philadelphia, traveled to Armenia in the fall of 2012. Working with the Children of Armenia Fund, she conducted health exams, including breast and cervical cancer screenings, and provided contraceptive counseling. The following account is based on her work and conversations with Armenian women.

by Taleen K. Moughamian

The differences between Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, and the rest of the country are vast. While Yerevan has most of the modern-day conveniences you could ask for, the villages I visited in the Armavir region have populations between 300 and 1,000, mostly comprised of women.

Their husbands have gone –- off to neighboring countries, especially Russia, to find work. They usually stay away for 10 months out of the year. Some men have even started new families in their work countries.

It was not uncommon to meet women who needed to be treated for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) because their husbands are having extra marital affairs while abroad. They are upfront about this, though it surprised me how openly they talked about it.

I heard so many of them say, “They are men. They have needs. What can we do?”

This has created a huge problem and is one of the reasons why STIs, including HIV, are on the rise in Armenia.

There is limited access to effective contraception, so the rate of abortion, which is legal up to 12 weeks, is high. Most of the women who seek an abortion are married, already have two or three children, and do not feel they can provide for a larger family.

Sex-Selective Abortions

For some women, this means having three or four or even 15 abortions over the course of their lives as they struggle to create a family they can support. The median number of abortions for women over 40 is eight, according to a 1995 study conducted at a Yerevan abortion clinic.

Sex-selection has also become a huge issue. Since women leave their homes and join their husband’s family after marriage, a son provides a source of security for his parents. I met so many women who have had multiple abortions because the sex of the child was not what they had wished; for more data, see this UNFPA report on sex selection in Armenia and this story in The Armenian Weekly.

If you look at recent family planning data, it appears the number of abortions is going down, but from what I observed, that is not necessarily the case. Rather, more abortions are going unreported.

Rise in Unsupervised Abortions

Women are using an over-the-counter medication called Cytotec (the brand name for misoprostol) to induce abortions at home without the supervision of a trained medical professional. Cytotec’s indication is to treat ulcers, but it also acts as an abortifacient. Fifty cents worth of Cytotec can induce an abortion, whereas a surgical abortion usually costs about $35-$50.

When used properly, Cytotec is very safe, even without clinical supervision. But it is most effective when used in combination with a second drug, mifepristone (see more on this below).

Women in the villages I visited were not familiar with the World Health Organization guidelines now used by women all over the world. (Note: Women on Waves offers guidance, based on the WHO research, on how to do an abortion with pills.)

Many Armenian women are therefore in a dangerous situation, as they are using Cytotec without the relevant information about its efficacy or side effects, which can range from an incomplete abortion to bleeding to death.

In Russian we call an evidence like this: one of grandmas said

Statistical analysis of abortions in Georgia between 2000 and 2013

by Alexander Chavchidze, Gulnara Shelia Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia - dodoshelia@yahoo.com
Objective : To show the number and the structure of women who had decided to interrupt the unwanted pregnancy in Georgia during the period 2000 to 2013.
Method : Results are based on statistical analysis of National Centre for Diseases Control and Public Health (NCDC) .
Results : Despite decreases in the rate of abortions at the present time, Georgia continues to have one of the highest recorded rates of induced abortion in the region (3.7 abortions per woman in 2000 , 3.1- in 2005 and 1.6 - in 2012). Most abortions (86 – 87.1 %) were performed in the legally sanctioned gestation range of up to 10 weeks. The average age of women was 30 years (range 14 – 45 years). Induced abortion was most commonly performed in women ranging from 25 – 34 years old 52.3 % (2000) and 56.4 % (2012). Closely followed by women ranging from age 35 – 39 (25.3 % and 26.5 % accordingly - in 2000 and 2012). Women under 20 were represented with 4.1 % (2000) and 4.2% (2012). 62.7% (2000) and 41.4 % (2012) of the women had undergone their first abortion, for 26.7 % (2000) and 33.5% (2012) it was the second. The abortions were performed : in hospital (55.8%) , in a clinic (42.2 %) and outside of a health care institution (1.9 %).
Conclusions: The falling number of abortions in Georgia (in spite of the still large number) reflects the more adequate family planning and usage of contemporary contraceptive methods. In Georgia family planning has not achieved its goal yet and induced abortion is still the most common method of fertility regulation. This underlines the need for fully implementing the organizational measures aimed at improving these indices.

Source

Discrimination in Demographic Review

Just recently (five minutes ago) I have found a sign of how strongly and probably unconsciously Vishnevski dislikes me ;)
The new online demographic journal (subj) currently has three sections, according to the content our paper belongs to analytical one, but it does not sit there. Thanks a lot we are mentioned in the authors' section.
Real fun ;)
why?

Birth Control in Russia: Overcoming the state system resistance

It is published as a HSE working paper in sociology WP BRP 42/SOC/2014.

This paper considers the changes in the major proximate determinants of fertility in Russia within the framework of demographic transition theory and Bongaarts approach to fertility analysis. After World War II Russian fertility became a fully controlled process. The complex interplay of abortion and contraception during the Soviet period resulted in a very high abortion level. The Russian government has almost never supported and promoted family planning as an alternative to abortion. However couples' preferences for few offspring appeared more powerful than the will of authorities. Current trends show that despite the lack of governmental support society itself is evolving towards more humanistic and effective birth control. Estimates based on recent surveys' data confirm the validity of official statistics showing there is a decline in the number of abortions.


linx to original paper:

• HSE general storage - http://www.hse.ru/org/hse/wp/prepfr_all
• HSE Sociology - http://www.hse.ru/org/hse/wp/prepfr_SOC
• SSRN http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2444707
• REPEC - http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/higwpaper/default4.htm

in slightly different (structure added) format:

• academia.edu
• researchgate

Rotary Club

Presentation to Rotary Club delegation from Austria

Public health in Russia presentation to Rotary Club from rdlj
It took about 20-30 minutes + about half an hour to Q&A, many of them were really interesting

Social and Economic Conservatism Scale

Putin declared a new conservatism + a rule of traditions + etc.
Jim A. C. Everett in PLoS publishes some operational tools for him:

The SECS (see subj) is suggested to be an important and useful tool for researchers working in political psychology as well as for national leaders.

needs for order, structure, closure, certainty, dogmatism, and discipline are often shown to be more central to the thinking of conservative proponents, whereas higher tolerance of ambiguity and complexity and greater openness to new experiences appear to be associated with liberal cognitive styles 

then decide: who are you ;)

Gender Relations and Birth Control in the Age of the Pill

you may wish to see some photos from the event
plenty of Jena and too few of the fellow participants

difference in famine perception

An LJ friend published a review text about his paper on mortality in one of Soviet concentration camps, have a look:

I have now read your paper. It is interesting and discusses some important issues. It is good to see that there are some young Russian historians concerned about these matters. I attach some comments on the paper.
SAZLAG - Some comments
This paper has three parts:
(1) A presentation and discussion of the mortality data for SAZLAG for 1931-45.
(2) A presentation of the mortality data of Buchenwald and a comparison with SAZLAG.
(3) Attention to the fact that the terrible mortality at SAZLAG is hardly known to anyone and that the people responsible were never punished for their crimes.
(1) This is useful. I was unaware of the existence of tis camp and of its very high mortality figures. However, the high mortality is not so surprising. I myself travelled in Central Asia in 1966-67. At one time I stayed in the student hostel of Samarkand State University (SAMGU). Hygiene there was terrible. The lavatories were awful and the availability of washing facilities not very good. It is really not very surprising that mortality in SAZLAG was higher than in the Gulag as a whole. I expect that mortality in Central Asia was higher than in the USSR as a whole,. In this connection, in Figure 1 you compare mortality in SAZLAG with normal mortality in the USSR. However, really you should compare it with mortality in Central Asia. That is the relevant comparison group.
(2) The comparison with Buchenwald. I am not surprised that this is “very controversial in modern Russian historical” writing. What makes it controversial is two things. First, the unwillingness to accept similarities between the Soviet and Nazi systems. Secondly, the usual identification of German concentration camps with the German extermination camps.
You carefully point out that your comparison is not with the extermination camps, but with the ‘normal’ concentration camps in Germany. Once this is explained, this should reduce the emotional resistance to your paper, although the first argument above would remain. Personally, I think your comparison with Buchenwald is perfectly legitimate and interesting. It is a useful way of drawing attention to the scale of the inhumanity represented by SAZLAG.
Incidentally, the first modern ‘concentration camps’ were those used by the British in their war in South Africa in 1899-1901 (known in the UK as the ‘Boer War’). The British put the civilian Boer population (including women and children) in camps to deprive the male Boer fighters of the possibility of disappearing into the civilian population. There was a high mortality in these camps (I do not have the figures to hand) and this caused a big political scandal at the time. (Nowadays only a few specialists seem to know that ‘concentration camps’ were introduced by the British and not the Germans.)
I think your explanation of the difference between Buchenwald and the extermination camps is too long. Do you really need all the text on pages 31-38?
Your comparison with prison mortality in the Russian Empire is a good one. As for the USA, also relevant is the death rate among the Japanese and Japanese Americans deported from the West Coast at the beginning of 1942 and interned in special camps.
(3) Obviously the USSR/Russia did not go through any proper process of punishment for those guilty of these crimes. In addition, many people in Russia today have a rather rosy view of the Stalinist past. Russia has not condemned the past and its perpetrators in the way Germany has. Neither has it had a Truth and Reconciliation process similar to South Africa. Although it is a good idea to draw attention to this, I doubt very much whether this situation will change. In the USA, in 1988 a law was passed apologizing for the 1942 internment of Japanese Americans. The survivors (or their heirs) received financial compensation.
MINOR POINTS
On page 15, bottom of the page, you refer to 1931 as “a non-famine and peaceful year”. This is not the case. Of course the peak of the famine was in 1933, and 1932-33 were the main famine years. However, there were also famine deaths in 1931-34. I usually refer in my writings to the ‘1931-34 famine’. If I remember correctly, the 1931 deaths were mainly in Kazakhstan, which of course was nearer to Central Asia than Russia or Ukraine. Besides the famine, 1931 was scarcely very ‘peaceful’ either. It is true that the USSR was not engaged in an international war, but there was a bitter struggle between the state and the peasantry. (Furthermore, in 1931 the Soviet leadership became very concerned about Japanese aggression in the Far East.)
I notice that you are an aspirant. I feel that the text you have written is more suitable as a chapter in a Memorial book than as a chapter in a kandidatskaya dissertatsiya. Personally I would advise that the chapter be a bit less polemical. Maybe by making comparisons with the British concentration camps for Boer War civilians, and the US camps for interned Japanese-Americans, you could counter criticism by ‘patriots’. (I expect, although I do not have the figures to hand, that in both cases mortality was much below that in SAZLAG.) Also, by reducing the number of pages devoted to Buchenwald, and its status in Germany, you would improve the text as a chapter in a dissertatisiya.

a theologian

love wins

cannibalism statistics, Ukraine, 1947

LJ user allin777 posted this table:

formal reference: Архив МВД Украины, ф.3, оп.1, д.91, л.139.
for those who do not read in Russian --- translation of columns' titles:

1. region
2. number of cannibalism cases in 1947
3. out of them in June 1947
4. number of eaten corpses
5. out of them in June 1947
6. number of procecuted in 1947 (attracted for responsibility), but not nesessarily arrested
7. out of them in June 1947

Last table row -- totals.

Colonel Antoniuk, head of BB Dept of Ministry of Interior signed the document.

What is BB -- I do not know yet.

also to the same topic dystrophy prevalence
upg: BB = struggle against banditism

lost or found in translation

observed reality or the future image ?