Peace Without Poison

From 1999 to 2008, thus during President Vladimir Putin’s first and second terms, the totalfertility rate remained well below replacement level but climbed slightly and reached 1.5children per woman in 2008.Dmitry Medvedev (2008-2012) pursued the same policy of population control as Vladimir Putinand also allowed fertility to climb, reaching 1.7 in 2012.Since Vladimir Putin resumed his place at the helm of Russia in May 2012 and until today, thetotal fertility rate has risen modestly to 1.8 children per woman. The new Russia, like the oldSoviet Union, keeps the poisons in place in order to subvert fertility and keep it belowreplacement level.The only difference is that the new Russia is trying to replace sterilization via endocrinedisruptors with contraceptive use, which is why the contraceptive prevalence rate has risen in thenew Russia from less than 35% during the early 1990s to more than 80% (of which 65% bymodern methods) today.Abortion appears to have played a significant role in Russia’s declining fertility and continues todo so. If the historical record is accurate, which I very much doubt given the tendency of allcentrally planned economies to fabricate data, then 60% to 70% of all pregnancies ended inabortion from 1957 until the year 2000. Since then it has steadily declined to just 31% to date.Had abortion been the primary reason for Russia’s low fertility we should have seen a doublingof its fertility rate, but that is not the case and Russia’s fertility remains stuck at sub-replacementlevel.Between 1992 and 2012 Russia has lost six million people due to its negative growth rate and thetotal population decreased from 149 to 143 million. Since 2012 it has added 3 million peopledue to immigration and not births.678 | P a g e