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Russian government's health ministry has approved an informed consent agreement requiring abortion practitioners to tell women of risks that women having abortions are urged to sign.

Moscow, Russia-In an effort is to help reduce the number of abortions in the nation, which has seen the practice decimate its population, Russian government's health ministry has approved an informed consent agreement that women having abortions are urged to sign.

The new agreement is similar to the Right-to-Know laws which pro-life advocates in the US have approved that require abortion practitioners to tell women of abortion's risks. The new informed consent document lists possible medical and mental health complications resulting from an abortion and women getting it would be told the fact that it is not necessarily a safe medical procedure. Unlike American laws, abortion practitioners aren't required to present the document. The consent forms involve abortions where an unborn child is no more than 12 weeks old.

Russia’s population has been shrinking since the 1990’s as abortion became a means of birth control. With about 1.5 million abortions performed annually, the nation is the largest in the world but it has just 141.4 million citizens -- less than half of the United States. The Russian government has been working to address its underpopulation crisis and has given couples a one-time bonus which provides parents with a bonus of $9,600 following the birth of a second child and any subsequent children. That's a huge sum of money in a country where the average monthly salary is $330.