The history of abortion and abortion statistics in the USSR between 19
17 and 1991 is particular. Subjected to the vagaries of population pol
icies during this period, they can be reconstituted today from many ex
tant archives. This article is concerned with the relationships betwee
n laws, abortion trends, ideological changes, and statistics. It uses
the abundant Russian and Soviet literature on abortion, as well as sta
tistics from the archives of the Ministry of Health. Finally, the arti
cle analyses the recent decline in abortion and the development of mod
ern contraception, mainly IUDs.