Iran’s Health Ministry has introduced a hotline aimed at dissuading citizens from having abortions as the theocratic system attempts to confront slowing population growth. “Trained individuals help callers keep their pregnancies and decide against abortion,” the head of the Ministry’s Center for Population Growth, Saber Jabari, said Thursday.
The initiative is part of broader efforts by the government to address declining population growth in the country. Last weekend, Iran’s Ministry of Science called for the removal of educational content deemed to discourage childbearing. Iran has also established anti-abortion centers in 250 cities, preventing 4,700 abortions, according to a Health Ministry official.
Last year in October, a medical network affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it intervened in thousands of abortion cases, adding that the group monitors hospitals and clinics to identify couples considering the procedure. According to the head of the IRGC-affiliated Basij Medical Society, the group’s efforts prevented approximately 6,000 abortions over the past three years, reporting a success rate of 90%.
Iran’s Deputy Health Minister has warned the country’s population looks set to halve by the end of the century as birth rates continue to fall in spite of efforts by the government to incentivize larger families.
However, Government efforts to encourage higher birth rates in Iran have failed to produce results so far, according to data from the National Organization for Civil Registration. Births declined by more than 17,000 in the Iranian year that began on March 21, 2023, compared to the previous year, with the average children per family down from six to three.
SOURCES: Iran International. 9 January 2025 ; Iran International, 13 January 2025