Moscow, June 4, 2012
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Within the framework of this program, various events will take place in the larger cities of Russia opposing abortion and popularizing family values. This year’s movement will have a free format, and the different regional youth and social organizations have created their own programs ranging from the distribution of religious educational literature and leaflets, discussion groups, processions, and demonstrations propagating the refusal of abortions, to concerts and plays.
All the participants in “Russia for Life, Russia Without Abortions!” are united by several demands: outlawing the advertising of pregnancy termination services, the closing of private abortion clinics, intensified advertising against abortions, and the cessation of government funding for abortions. Activities in the different cities included pickets, walks for life, and motor rallies in defense of children. In Novocherkask, candles were lit in memory of those killed in their mother’s womb.
Other events were organized to support large families and needy mothers. Collections of charity were conducted in Orthodox parishes across the country, along with family entertainment, concerts, and get-togethers.
Orthodox young people are making active use of social networks on the internet to disseminate information on the harms of abortion and to encourage internet users to write letters to the State Duma demanding changes in legislation that would limit abortion clinic advertising, liquidate private abortion clinics, and transfer pregnancy clinic functions to state hospitals and clinics.
The movement has the support of the State Duma Commission for affairs of social and religious organizations, as well as of a number of social and youth organizations. The movement is taking place in over fifty regions of Russia.
