Moscow, September 25, 2020
Photo: spzh.news
The Moscow Patriarchate supports the initiative of public activists to install a monument to pregnant women in Moscow, and is calling on them to extend the project to other cities and regions, given the difficult demographic situation in Russia.
The head of the Save Life charity project for women in crisis pregnancies, Ekaterina Markova, earlier appealed to Moscow authorities to erect a statue of a pregnant woman in an effort to form a more positive image of pregnancy and childbirth. The authors of the initiative note that the birth rate in Russia is falling, due in part to the degradation of the family institution, reports RIA-Novosti.
“Such monuments are needed in every city. There is a shortage of social advertising in support of the institution of the family in the country today,” commented Maria Studenikina, the head of the abortion prevention division of the Synodal Department for Charity and director of the Orthodox Home for Mothers crisis centers.
According to Studenikina, negative attitudes towards motherhood and family values are actively being spread in social networks, “and as a result, many refuse to start a family had have children.”
“In this situation, the birth rate will only decrease. Social support measures for families and measures to maintain a positive attitude towards childbearing in society should go side by side. This will allow us to effectively solve demographic problems,” said the representative of the Synodal department.
According to data from Rosstat, the birth rate in Russia fell by 5.7% in annual terms in the first seven months of 2020. The natural population decline from January to July was 316,400, as compared to 209,700 last year.
In May 2018, members of the Russian human rights movement Women for Life called for a monument to victims of abortion to be erected in Moscow, as a challenge to Russians to seriously think about the scourge of abortion that plagues their country.
