Moscow, Russia, Jul 16, 2011 / 15:59 pm
The Russian government has enacted a law requiring abortion ads to carry health warnings about the procedure. Lawmakers say that the ads presently mislead the public by creating the impression that abortion is a simple surgery with no health risks.
The new amendments require that warnings about the dangers, including loss of fertility, should occupy at minimum 10 percent of each advertisement, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports.
President Dimitry Medvedev signed the bill into law on July 14.
Russia has one of the world’s highest abortion rates. More than one million women have abortions every year. In 2007 there were 1.5 million abortions, a number almost equal to the number of children born.