Artificial termination of pregnancy as a social practice: the process of formation in Russia

The category “social practice” has been actively used to study social phenomena since the end of the twentieth century, it allows to significantly expand the sociological aspect of research, but it has not been used to study the phenomenon of artificial termination of pregnancy. The purpose of the article was an attempt to identify the phenomenon of artificial termination of pregnancy with this category. The article highlights the stages of the development of artificial termination of pregnancy, identifies its signs, correlates with those inherent in “social practice”. The author came to the conclusion that artificial termination of pregnancy as a social practice began to take shape from the end of the 20th century, which manifested itself in an increase in the number of individual cases of abortions. Since the 1920s, the procedure has become the norm for society as a whole. By the mid-1930s, the process of forming the practice was completed, as evidenced by the manifestation of all the characteristics characteristic of this category: stability, reproducibility, mass character, the presence of a semantic basis. Further, artificial termination of pregnancy as a social practice began to develop. The practice in question consists of a number of components: the participants of the practice, the action of the practice, the method of carrying out the procedure, the type of abortion, the reasons for an individual's decision to have an abortion, factors influencing the practice, the object of influence of the practice, the study of the content of which allows you to trace its development. The study of the stages of the formation of this practice allowed us to conclude that the spread of abortions in Russia was the result first of a change in the personal attitude of individuals to them, and since the 1920s - the distortion of religious, moral, ethical norms and traditions in society as a whole. The reasons why an individual decides to artificially terminate a pregnancy go beyond the socio-economic conditions of an individual's life. The results obtained make it possible to identify the phenomenon as a social practice, which determines the possibility of its further research through this category.