Abortion foes begin to make their case in Russia

Doctors and politicians are quietly working to change the nation's casual attitude toward the procedure.
By Megan K. Stack, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 20, 2008

MOSCOW -- Physician Marina Chechneva remembers the old-style Russian gynecologists who worked in state hospitals and churned out back-to-back abortions like Soviet factory workers.

She remembers the women who "used to use abortion as a kind of vacation, because in the U.S.S.R., they got three days off from work."Chechneva, head researcher at the Moscow region's Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics, performs abortions as part of her medical practice.

These days, she is writing magazine articles about fetus development in hope of raising public opposition to abortion. After years of handling fetuses, she explains, she has come to feel a responsibility toward them. the rest