‘A child does not require major financial expenses’: How Belarusian women are pressured before abortions
Women in Belarus have the right to have an abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or during the first 22 weeks in cases involving “social indications”. Before that, however, they are required to undergo “counselling”, which the Belarusian medical community White Coats has likened to “moral rape”. The guidelines for this “counselling” contain a number of absurd recommendations.
28.08.2026
The Belarusian medical community White Coats has published a teaching and methodological manual entitled Pre-abortion Family Counselling, issued in Minsk in 2023. Doctors have once again drawn attention to the pressure placed on women before abortions, describing the manual as a “guide to psychological violence”.
The manual contains extensive tables with suggested responses to numerous emotions and concerns expressed by women. Some of the recommendations raise serious questions, while others are simply absurd.
The decision not to have a child is described as a “primitive infantile psychological defence mechanism” (p. 8). Women who are afraid to give birth are described as “often anxious, infantile women who expect someone to take responsibility for them, calm them down and comfort them” (p. 26).
When a woman raises concerns about financial difficulties, counsellors are advised to tell her that “a child does not require major financial expenses, and the financial difficulties identified can be resolved before the child is born” (p. 24). Women who fear being left without the means to support themselves are portrayed as materialistic, and counsellors are advised to redirect their attention towards their “purpose of being a mother” (p. 25).
When there are problems with the child’s father, counsellors are advised to point out that the role of the father could be taken on by the child’s grandfather, uncle or even “fictional characters using augmented reality” (p. 25).
Women are also suspected of prioritising “the aesthetic condition of their figure, various diets and travel” (p. 26).
In addition, the guidelines recommend advising women to carefully weigh information provided by “government resources” (p. 5).
Under Article 27 of Belarus’s Law on Health Protection, women have the right to make their own decisions about motherhood. Induced termination of pregnancy is permitted up to 12 weeks, or up to 22 weeks when “social indications” are present. An abortion requires not only the woman’s consent but also a consultation with a specialist doctor. The law allows for “pre-abortion psychological counselling”, but does not explicitly state whether such counselling is mandatory.
White Coats points out that hospitals across Belarus take different approaches to pre-abortion counselling. In some places it is mandatory, while elsewhere, including in Barysau, even a priest has been brought in to take part in the counselling. It is unclear whether women can refuse such counselling. However, under the law, an individual doctor has the right to refuse to perform the procedure.
Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Siarhei Papou told White Coats that the desire to terminate a pregnancy is not an illness and therefore cannot be grounds for mandatory counselling. While the right to receive counselling is itself a positive thing, “voluntary-compulsory” counselling in Belarus can be harmful because “with each passing month, the percentage of adequate therapists and psychologists will become smaller and smaller”. The mandatory “72 hours of silence” — the waiting period before an abortion following counselling — is described by the psychologist as “direct violence and dehumanisation”.
In 2025, 13,679 abortions were performed in Belarus — the lowest number since records began and 20 times fewer than in 1990. It is unknown how much of this decline can be attributed to pre-abortion counselling: Belarus has experienced a catastrophic fall in the birth rate, while some of the government’s measures aimed at increasing it are raising doubts. One of the latest proposals is to ban abortions in private medical centres.
