From Abortive to Contraceptive Culture: Focuses, Sources of Information and Gender Differences

Over the past few years, the theme of sexuality and intimacy, tabooed in the USSR, has become a subject of discussion in the post-Soviet space of sociological discourse. Despite the fact that contraception is gradually entering daily practice, there are a number of phenomena in the ideological sphere called the "conservative turn", the essence of which is the idea of introducing a new ban on abortion. So, the general purpose of this academic project is to determine the place of behavior patterns of tested young people in the sexual sphere, aimed at warning unwanted pregnancy, in the continuum of abortive and contraceptive cultures. The goal of the project was achieved via development of qualitative sociological method, namely semi-structured interviews. The model of theoretical sampling was based on the category of absence or presence of children and category of sexual experience's level. The results of the study helps to bring certain restore the knowledge gap that has emerged between studies of abortive culture of the Soviet period and the current situation. The results of this study demonstrate that there is an active conversion from abortive to contraceptive practices in Russian reality. Young adults use various methods of contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and also show the daily routine of this behavior.