Wednesday June 2, 2010
Russia Must Introduce Laws to Slow Abortion: Russian Orthodox Cleric
By Hilary White
MOSCOW, June 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Russia must enact pro-life laws or face demographic disaster, a leader in the Russian Orthodox Church said last week.
“In Soviet times we got used to abortion and we got used to considering it an unavoidable part of our legal reality and that there is no way to the turn back the page,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax news agency on Thursday.
“But we see today that it is possible to turn back a great deal.”
The Health Ministry released figures showing 1.2 million Russian abortions last year compared to 1.7 million live births. Between 1992 and 2008, Russia’s population dropped by more than 12 million.
UN statistics for 2007 show that the Russian Federation has 53.7 abortions per 1000 women aged 15 to 44, the highest rate in the world. Russia’s rate is followed by 35 abortions per 1000 women in Kazakhstan, 33.3 in Estonia, 31.7 in Belarus, and 24.2 in China.
Current law in the Russian Federation allows abortion on demand up to 12 weeks gestation, up to 22 weeks for social reasons, and at any point during the pregnancy for “medical necessity” and upon the woman’s consent.