Christian lobby seeks ban on abortions in Russia

[OakWood]

http://rt.com/politics/206479-russia-abortions-ban-christian/

 

An assembly gathered by Russian Orthodox Christians has passed a resolution seeking legislative changes to ban all abortions, claiming that human life begins at the moment of conception.

The assembly united about 400 people and included federal and regional lawmakers, members of the Public Chamber, medical experts and members of various church-related groups from 40 regions across Russia. The session took place in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral – the most important Orthodox place of worship in the Russian capital.

“The human right for life from the moment of conception should be guaranteed by the Constitution and the process of changing the Constitution should be launched by a nationwide referendum,” newspaper Izvestia cited the resolution as saying. The politicians and activists are also seeing changes to federal laws on healthcare, on medical drugs, on medical insurance and on guarantees of children’s rights.

One of the main sponsors of the initiative, the head of the “For Life” movement Sergey Chesnokov, told the newspaper that although Russia ratified the International Convention on Children’s Rights in 1990, the authorities still do nothing to “protect children before birth.” Every year about 1 million women in Russia have induced abortions and only 10 percent of them are carried out for health reasons, Chesnokov said.

According to the resolution, any induced abortion is “murder” and must be banned. This also includes contraceptives “with an abortive function” – morning-after pills and intra-uterine devices – whose production, sale and use in Russia would also be banned. Members of the assembly quoted the state statistics agency, Rosstat, as stating that the number of Russian women who use abortive contraception is now about 9 million.