Seventy-two percent of Russians are against a total ban on abortion, which is three percent more than last year, a poll published by the state-run pollster VTsIOM revealed on Tuesday. Only eighteen percent of respondents – same amount as in 2015 – believe such a ban should be instituted, the study showed.
The number of Russians that are against excluding abortion from the state-funded health insurance, has also grown from 59 percent in 2015 to 70 percent in 2016. At the same time, the number of people who think that abortion should not be a state-funded procedure, lowered from 25 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2016.
Nine percent of female respondents said they had an abortion. More than half of the respondents – 51 percent – believe that poor financial conditions are the main reason why women resort to abortion.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 15 and 16 in 46 Russian regions among 1,600 respondents. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5 percent.
