Most avoid childbirth by choice, by not having children or by ending their pregnancies. Russia has the world's highest abortion rate, with two out of three pregnancies ending in abortion. Some women do not have that choice. Russia's Health Ministry and other experts estimate 10 to 25per cent of Russian couples are infertile. And infant mortality is on the rise, a phenomenon extremely rare for an industrialised nation.
Some obstetricians say a tenth of Russian newborns die of infections.
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