Belarusians Responded Harshly To The Authorities' New "Soviet-style" Initiative
- 21.08.2026, 19:02
The authorities decided to address the demographic situation in a strange way.
Deputy Director for Research at the National Research and Practical Center “Mother and Child” Ivan Kurlovich said that Belarusian women aged 18 to 39 will begin to undergo state-funded ovarian reserve testing directly during their routine medical checkups. Simply put, patients will be referred for a test to assess the number of eggs as part of their routine preventive checkup. The official rationale is “to identify risks of infertility long before clinical symptoms appear”. However, the initiative has not been well-received by all Belarusian women.
Many commenters on Threads drew attention to the wording used to present the new measure. For example, user nastyahalaunitskaya believes that people were offended specifically by the word “mandatory” as it applied to reproductive capabilities—it evoked associations with a “ticking biological clock.” In her opinion, if the wording had been softened—for example, by framing it as a right rather than an obligation—there might not have been such an outcry.
Some commenters suggested alternative priorities for free healthcare. User katsiaryna.kakhanska asked why they didn’t instead make the HPV vaccine free at any age. an_revtovich expressed a similar idea, noting that infertility in itself does not threaten a woman’s life or health, unlike cervical cancer, which is caused by the same human papillomavirus—in her words, it is precisely a free HPV test or a reduction in the price of the vaccine that would constitute genuine care for women’s health. User evgeniikarlov suggested making NIPT (non-invasive prenatal testing) free as a top priority.
Some expressed a more cautious reaction. User dirk_d1ggler noted that, for some reason, all such free initiatives focus exclusively on women’s reproductive health, and against the backdrop of discussions periodically surfacing in the media about the Soviet-era “childlessness tax,” this seems suspicious.
Doctor svetlanaiakutovskaia emphasized that the decision to have or not to have children is a woman’s personal right, dependent on a multitude of circumstances in her life. In her opinion, such a test should be free only for those who want it or are already facing a problem; in all other cases, it should be administered exclusively with the woman’s consent.
User f.leenyngness explained that she would prefer to pay for the test when she herself deems it necessary and is ready to discuss the issue of pregnancy with a doctor she trusts, rather than being subjected, in her words, “a free brainwashing session” at the clinic—because of this approach, she hasn’t seen her local gynecologist in several years.