ABORTIONS IN THE SOVIET BLOC: WHAT THEY MEAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2008
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: March 14, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2008/12/08: CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5
The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
National Intelligence Council
NIC 01705-84
14 March 1984
h9EMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
Chairman, National Intelligence Counci
FROM: Herbert E. Meyer
Vice Chairman, National Intelligence Council
SUBJECT: Abortions in the Soviet Bloc: What They Mean
1. Romania's Nicolai Ceausescu last week reported in a widely publicized
speech that of 742,000 recorded pregnancies in 1983, 420,000 were aborted.
This works out to an official abortion rate of 57%. Since it is inevitable
that some pregnancies went unrecorded that were later aborted, the real
percentage must be higher.
2. For comparable figures on the Soviet Union, I checked with
who as you know is the West's leading Soviet-bloc demograp
'estimates that the abortion rate for the USSR as a whole is between
60% and 700. Among Slavs and Balts, who comprise 80% of the Soviet
population, the abortion rate is 75% to 80%.
-- According to a Soviet medical journal published in July 1983, a survey
of 400 women in Russia's Tambov Oblast--women who had had at least one
induced abortion--showed that these women had each undergone between
one and 28 abortions, with 5% of the women undergoing 11 or more
abortions.
3. In the United States, the abortion rate is 30%.
4. I don't think we can attribute these staggering Soviet-bloc abortion
rates entirely to the low quality of available birth-control products and to
decisions by sensible, practical parents to limit the size of their families
simply because their apartments lack sufficient floor space for comfort.
Rather, I believe that we should view these abortion rates, at least partly,
as an indication of the average couple's judgment on life in Communist
societies. Indeed, these abortion rates reflect a vision of the future that
is bleak and despairing almost to the point of national suicide.
STAT
STAT
~~ i4D
Approved For Release 2008/12/08: CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5
 Approved For Release 2008/12/08: CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5
5. Thy above statistics and their implications will be addressed in our
forthcoming NIE on political and economic pressures within the USSR.
6. Since these statistics all are public, you may wish to make them
available to policymakers for use in their own public statements.
Herbert E. Me er
cc: NIO/USSR-EE
A/NIO/USSR-EE
NIC/AG
Approved For Release 2008/12/08: CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5
 Approved For Release 2008/12/08: CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5
NIC 01705-84
SUBJECT: Abortions in the Soviet Bloc: What They Mean
VC/NIC/Hhleyer:mjp~~
Distribution:
Orig -
DCI
1 -
DDCI
,~/-
E R
1 - C/NIC
1 - UC/NIC (C
W)
1 - NIO/USSR-EE
1 - A/NIO/USSR-EE
1 - NIC/AG
1 - VC/NIC (HM)
1 - VC/NIC Chrono
1 - NIC Registry
Approved For Release 2008/12/08: CIA-RDP86M00886R001000030006-5