In Russia, gynecologists have been required to identify patients who do not wish to have children. The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation has sent a new guideline to the regions, as reported by the Telegram channel "Medical Russia," according to infohub.kz.
According to the document, Russian women aged 18 to 49 who state they do not want to have children will be referred for psychological counseling. The purpose of such consultations is to form "positive attitudes" toward motherhood.
Women who do not plan to have children are to be identified through a questionnaire that includes 61 questions. However, men who do not wish to become fathers will not be referred to specialists.
Reproductive specialist Kirill Dvortsov assessed the initiative: according to him, the idea itself is correct, but the question is in its implementation. He emphasized that psychologists during appointments should take a neutral position and not impose their opinions on women.
"He must listen to the person, and that person must come to some decision themselves. Here lies the key conflict with what the state wants. It is impossible to be an uninterested party if you have a direct task to make a person give birth," the publication quotes the specialist as saying.
The expert warns that pressure on women could lead to the opposite results, since motherhood cannot be imposed, for example, on those who have no partner or whose family is falling apart. In his opinion, as a result, patients will start lying during appointments or stop going to gynecologists altogether, just to avoid forced conversations.
Earlier, "Kursiv" wrote that the demographic situation in Kazakhstan shows contradictory dynamics. Despite consistently high birth rates (over 227 thousand children born in three quarters), overall population growth turned out to be minimal — at 0.58%. At the same time, in 11 regions, statistics record not growth but an actual population decline.