He s taking it really hard. We wanted to have a little girl but we already have two children and we can t afford another. Poverty is pushing Zhanna and other Russian women toward abortion. She is unemployed. Her husband scrapes by on a tiny salary.
Abortion is free.
In contrast to Soviet days when it was virtually impossible to find contraceptives, Russian pharmacies, in big cities at least, now stock a number of different pills and devices. But some women can not afford them. The pharmacist at one Moscow drug store shows us a dozen brands of hormonal contraceptives, most of them manufactured in Eastern Europe. There is another factor that keeps Russian women from using birth control. Many women are afraid to use hormonal birth control pills, even though we talk with them every day, says one Moscow doctor who performs abortions.