A tragic incident in Russia’s Zabaykalsky Krai has once again illuminated the human cost of restricting access to reproductive healthcare. This weekend, students living in a teachers’ college dormitory discovered a newborn baby lying on the bathroom floor, wrapped in a jacket. The infant’s mother — a 17-year-old student — had given birth alone in the stall and left the baby behind.

Both mother and child were quickly taken to the hospital and are now together under medical supervision. According to People of Baikal, the newborn’s life is not in danger. Local authorities have already met with the young mother, the school administration, and her instructors, and have requested her medical records as part of the ongoing inquiry.

Behind this event lies a broader, troubling context. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government has intensified its pronatalist agenda. Officials are encouraging women to have more children — and to start earlier. In Zabaykalsky Krai, the authorities even offer monthly payments of 22,600 rubles (approximately $290) to pregnant schoolgirls and students during maternity leave.

Yet while the government promotes childbirth, access to safe abortion care has been shrinking rapidly. Across the region, many hospitals and clinics have surrendered their licenses for providing abortions, leaving young people with fewer and fewer options. This narrowing of reproductive rights doesn’t eliminate the need for abortion — it simply forces vulnerable individuals into dangerous or desperate situations.

The story of this 17-year-old student is not an isolated tragedy, but a signal flare. When comprehensive reproductive healthcare is dismantled, it is young women, girls, and marginalized communities who bear the immediate and devastating consequences.

For more details, see the original report by Meduza:
Source: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/11/24/17-year-old-college-student-gives-birth-in-bathroom-stall-and-leaves-baby-wrapped-on-floor-hospitals-in-her-region-of-russia-have-stopped-offering-abortions