On Wednesday night, Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda made a strong statement about abortion, referring to it as “murder.” The statement contradicting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stance on abortion.
The statement was made following a meeting last week of the Holy Synod of the Church — the church’s governing body headed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow — where participants discussed the topic of abortion and reaffirmed the church’s stance that abortion is murder.
“The Church clearly equates arbitrary surgery or medical abortion with murder, regardless of the age of pregnancy and the way it is performed,” Legoyda said. “For that reason, the declaration of the ‘right to an abortion,’ if not the ‘right to murder,’ is unacceptable.”
Abortion for whatever reason is legal in Russia up to 12 weeks, and, according to Associated Press, abortion remains legal in cases of rape up to 22 weeks. However, iIn recent months, at least 14 regions in Russia have outlawed abortions that they believe were caused by coercion, or banned private facilities from performing abortions.
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Earlier this month, President Putin killed a bill that would have banned private abortion businesses across Russia. He has too approved that women have a “right” to abortion. As Putin urged pregnant women considering abortion to “preserve the child’s life” in the interest of the state, Putin said he called on government officials to have “respect for women’s rights and freedoms .” He also noted that the Russian Orthodox Church is “fighting for everyone’s life.”
Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church continues to work to support mothers in crisis pregnancies by building support for pregnancy resource centers across Russia. Besides denouncing abortion, Synod of Wednesday expressed the need and support of establishing “crisis centers” to help women bring their children to term and “fulfill their vocation as mothers after childbirth,” according to Legoyda.
He also spoke about women who have had an abortion, saying, “Without rejecting women who have had an abortion, the Church calls on them to repent and overcome the evil consequences of sin through prayer and penance.”
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