Moscow, March 5, 2021
Photo: oum.ru
Multiple sources within the Russian State Duma have recently proposed new restrictions on the promotion and performance of abortion.
Speaking at the recent United Russia conference dedicated to the legal and legislative aspects of supporting families and family values, Deputy Vladimir Krupennikov proposed to strengthen the punishment for the promotion of abortion, reports DumaTV.
“I believe it’s necessary to propose a number of legislative initiatives aimed at establishing responsibility for the dissemination of information propagandizing abortion and strengthening the legal responsibility for advertising, forcing, or inclining towards abortion, as well as advertising the safety of abortions,” the Deputy said.
Krupennikov believes it’s necessary to “immediately erect a reliable barrier to destructive content in the media and social networks.”
Although the number of abortions has dropped by 2/3 since 2000 in Russia, the number is still “horrifyingly high,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said in 2015. He has addressed the State Duma twice, calling on the Parliamentarians to find a solution to the continuing plague of abortion.
Another Deputy, Inga Yumasheva, also proposed to ban abortions in all private clinics, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists with reference to the Duma’s official online gazette.
Speaking at the same United Russia conference, Yumasheva, a member of the Duma Committee for Family, Women, and Children, explained that private clinics often perform abortions the same day that a woman first contacts them, though it is necessary to give woman a “week of quiet” first, she says.
According to her proposal, abortions would be performed only in public medical institutions. This measure can “significantly improve both the statistics on abortions, and the understanding of the reasons why a woman takes such a step,” as well as reduce the number of criminal abortions, the Deputy believes.
She also proposed renaming the informed consent form, now called the “Pre-abortion Counseling Sheet,” to the “Pregnancy Preservation Sheet.” “There are no small things in such matters,” she emphasized.
Further, she proposed to ban abortions for minors without parental consent, and she united with Deputy Krupennikov’s call to increase the punishment for advertising abortions and promoting them as safe. The purpose of the stricter measures, Deputy Yumasheva explained, is for a woman to refuse to have an abortion not because of the prohibitions, but because she realized the value of human life.
Deputy Yumasheva has also proposed monthly state payments to pregnant women.
The Russian Orthodox Church has made several calls to remove abortion from the taxpayer-funded state insurance program, and to include abortions in mortality statistics.
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