The head of the Russian Orthodox Church called for a ban on the “inclination” to abortion throughout Russia

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, called for the adoption at the federal level of a law prohibiting the “inclination” of women to have abortions, which was previously adopted in two regions by local authorities.

“It’s a huge country, but the population is completely insufficient. We need more people,” said Kirill, speaking at the plenary congress of the Russian Orthodox Church, adding that “the population can be increased simply as if by moving a magic wand,” and “if you learn to dissuade women from abortion, the statistics will immediately go up.”

The law “On Prohibition of Inclination to Artificial Termination of Pregnancy” was adopted in August by the deputies of the State Assembly of Mordovia, in November the same law was adopted by the deputies
Legislative assembly of the Tver region. Its violators face heavy fines, while an administrative case, according to the document, will be initiated regardless of whether an abortion was performed or not.

In November, it became known that all private clinics in the annexed Crimea refused to perform abortion operations. A number of clinics in the Kursk and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as in Tatarstan, made a similar decision under pressure from the authorities.

• According to the analytical company RNC Pharma, in 2022, the demand of Russians for abortion drugs increased by 50-60% immediately, Kommersant reported. Experts believe that such a dynamic is connected with women’s doubts about the need to give birth to children in the current political situation. Another possible reason is the desire of clinics to stock up in the face of sanctions. In Russia, drugs for the termination of pregnancy are officially supplied only to licensed clinics.