Reel 4490

In.Edition.

Ted Koppel visits the USSR to examine how glasnost has helped launch a sexual revolution. "What you could have done a year ago, it's nothing compared to what you can do now," says photographer Sasha Borodulin, who shot a Playboy pictorial on Soviet women last year. "Sexual images," Koppel explains, "are among the few products in great demand in the Soviet Union that are not in short supply." Among the commodities that are scarce, though, are contraceptives. According to the report, Soviet condoms are not only difficult to get, they are also unreliable. "Without access to adequate birth-control devices, without sufficient housing or consumer goods, six times as many Soviet women choose abortion in any given year as do American women," says Koppel. One health researcher says she knows of women who have had up to 35 abortions. The hour (still being edited at press time) also covers homosexuality, which is still illegal in the USSR, AIDS (although the condom shortage plays a role, most cases can be traced to syringe reuse by health-care facilities); prostitution; and what executive producer Lionel Chapman calls the country's "moral vacuum." (60 min.)

In. Edition.