September 27, 2016 on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church there was a message that Patriarch Kirill signed a petition of citizens to ban abortions in Russia.
The signers of the appeal are in favor of:
"The termination of the practice of legal killing of children before birth in our country"
and require the prohibition of surgical and medical abortion of pregnancy. They demand to recognize:
"For the conceived child the status of a human being whose life, health and well-being should be protected by law"
They are also in favor of:
"A ban on the sale of contraception with abortive action" and "prohibition of assisted reproductive technologies, an integral part of which is the humiliation of human dignity and the killing of children in the early stages of embryonic development"
However, a few hours later the press secretary of the patriarch explained that it was only a matter of abortion from the OMC system, that is, prohibition of free abortions. According to the Church:
"This will be the first step on the road to the fact that we will someday live in a society where there may not be abortions at all."
The appeal has already collected more than 500,000 signatures. Among the supporters of the abortion ban are Grigory Leps, Dmitry Pevtsov, Anton and Victoria Makarsky, traveler Fedor Konyukhov, Oksana Fedorova, and the children's ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova and the supreme mufti of Russia support the initiative.
In addition, some members of the Public Chamber of Russia allow consideration of the draft law on the prohibition of abortions in Russia in 2016.
Thus, if the law on the prohibition of abortion in 2016 is adopted and will enter into force, not only abortions, but also abortive tablets, as well as the IVF procedure will be banned.
However, the effectiveness of this measure is very doubtful.
Experience of the USSR
Recall that since 1936 in the USSR abortions have already been banned. This measure caused a huge increase in women's mortality and disability as a result of the treatment of women to underground midwives and all sorts of healers, as well as attempts to interrupt pregnancy on their own. In addition, there has been a sharp increase in the number of murders of children under one year of their own mothers.
In 1955, the ban was abolished, and the death rate of women and newborns fell sharply.
For greater clarity, let us turn to the experience of countries where abortions are still banned, and we will tell real stories of women.
Savita Khalappanavar - victim of "defenders of life" (Ireland)
31-year-old Savita Khalappanavar, an Indian by birth, lived in Ireland, in the city of Galway, and worked as a dentist. When in 2012 the woman found out that she was pregnant, her joy was limitless. She and her husband, Pravin, wanted to have a big family and many children. Savita eagerly awaited the birth of the first child and, of course, did not think of any abortion.
On October 21, 2012, at the 18th week of pregnancy, the woman felt unbearable pain in her back. My husband took her to the hospital. After examining Savita, the doctor diagnosed her with a prolonged spontaneous miscarriage. He told the unhappy woman that her child was not viable and doomed.
Savita was very ill, she got fever, she was constantly sick. The woman felt terrible pains, and in addition water began to flow from her. She asked the doctor to have her an abortion, which would save her from contracting blood and sepsis. However, doctors categorically denied it, referring to the fact that the fetus is listening to the heartbeat, and aborting it is a crime.
Savita died within a week. All this time she herself, her husband and parents begged the doctors to save her life and had an abortion, but the doctors only laughed and politely explained to the grieving relatives that "Ireland is a Catholic country," and such actions on its territory are prohibited. When the sobbing Savita told the nurse that she was an Indian, and in India she would have had an abortion, the nurse replied that it was impossible in Catholic Ireland.
On October 24, Savita suffered a miscarriage. Despite the fact that she immediately underwent an operation to extract fetal remains, the woman could not be saved - the body already started the inflammatory process from the infection that had penetrated into the blood. On the night of October 28, Savita died. In the last moments of her life, her husband was next to her and held his wife's hand.
When, after her death, all medical documents were made public, Pravin was shocked that all the necessary tests, injections and procedures of the physician were carried out only at the request of his wife. It seems that doctors were not interested in her life at all. They were much more concerned with the life of the fetus, which in any case could not survive.
The death of Savita caused a huge public outcry and a wave of rallies throughout Ireland.
***
In Ireland, abortion is allowed only if the life (not the health!) Of the mother is under threat. But the line between the threat of life and the threat to health can not always be determined. Until recently, doctors had no clear instructions, in which case it is possible to do the operation, and in which it is impossible, so they rarely decided on abortion for fear of legal proceedings. Only after Savita's death some amendments were made to the existing law.
The prohibition of abortion in Ireland led to the fact that Irish women go to interrupt pregnancy abroad. These trips are officially permitted. So, in 2011, more than 4,000 Irish women had an abortion in the UK.
Jandira Dos Santos Cruz - victim of an underground abortion (Brazil)
27-year-old Zhandira Dos Santos Cruz, a divorced mother of two girls 12 and 9 years old, decided to abort because of financial problems. The woman was in a desperate situation. Because of the pregnancy, she could lose her job, and with the child's father no longer maintained a relationship. One friend gave her a card of an underground clinic, where only the phone number was indicated. The woman called the number and agreed on an abortion. For the operation to take place, she had to withdraw all her savings - $ 2000.
August 26, 2014, the former husband of Zhandira at her request took the woman to the bus stop, where she and a few other girls were taken by a white car. The driver of the car, the woman, told her husband that he could pick up Zhandir on the same day at the same stop. After a while the man received a text message from his ex-wife: "They ask me to stop using the phone. I'm terrified. Pray for me! "He tried to contact Zhandira, but her phone had already been disconnected.
Zhandir never returned to the appointed place. Her relatives went to the police.
A few days later, a woman's charred body with cut fingers and remote tooth bridges was found in the trunk of an abandoned car.
During the investigation, a whole gang involved in illegal abortions was detained. It turned out that the person who performed the operation Zhandire had false medical documents and had no right to engage in medical activities.
The woman died as a result of abortion, and the gang tried to hide the traces of the crime in such a monstrous way.
***
In Brazil, abortion is allowed only if the mother's life is threatened or the conception occurred as a result of rape. In this regard, clandestine clinics flourish in the country, in which women are made abortions for big money, often in unsanitary conditions. According to the National Health System of Brazil, 250,000 women who experience health problems after illegal abortions annually go to hospitals. And the press says that every two days as a result of an illegal operation, one woman dies.
Bernardo Gallardo - a woman who adopts dead babies (Chile)
Bernard Gallardo was born in 1959 in Chile. At the age of 16 a girl was raped by a neighbor. Soon she realized that she was pregnant, and she had to leave her family, who was not going to help "bring her daughter in the hem". Fortunately, Bernard had faithful friends who helped her survive. The girl gave birth to her daughter Francis, but after difficult births she remained barren. The woman says:
"After I was raped, I was lucky enough to be able to move on, thanks to the support of friends. If I were left alone, I probably would feel the same way as women who abandoned their children. "
With her daughter Bernard was very close. Francis grew up, married a Frenchman and went to Paris. At the age of 40, she married Bernard. With their husband they adopted two boys.
One morning, April 4, 2003, Bernarda read the newspaper. A headline rushed headlong into her eyes: "A terrible crime: a newborn child was thrown to the dump." Bernard instantly felt connected with the dead little girl. At that moment she herself was in the process of adopting the child, and thought that the deceased girl could become her daughter, if her mother had not thrown her into the trash.
In Chile, the children so discarded are classified as human waste and disposed of together with other surgical waste.
Bernard firmly decided to bury the baby like a human. It was not easy: to bring the girl to the ground, it took a long bureaucratic red tape, and Bernard had to adopt a child to arrange a funeral, held on October 24. About 500 people attended the ceremony. Little Aurora - so Bernard called the girl - was buried in a white coffin.
The next day, another baby was found in the dump, this time a boy. An autopsy showed that the baby suffocated in the package into which it was placed. His death was painful. Bernard adopted, and then also buried this baby, calling him Manuel.
Since then she adopted and betrayed three more children: Kristabal, Victor and Margarita.
She often visits the graves of toddlers, and also conducts active propaganda work, putting up leaflets for the call not to throw children into the landfill.
At the same time, Bernada understands the mothers who threw their babies into the trash, explaining this by saying that they simply do not have a choice.
These are young girls who were raped. If they are raped by a father or stepfather, they are afraid to admit it. Often the rapist is the only member of the family who earns money.
Another reason is poverty. Many families in Chile live below the poverty line and simply can not feed another child.
***
Until recently, Chilean legislation on abortion was one of the most stringent in the world. Abortion was banned altogether. However, a difficult financial situation and difficult social conditions pushed women into clandestine operations. Up to 120,000 women a year used the services of butchers. A quarter of them then went to public hospitals to restore their health. According to official statistics, about 10 dead infants are found every year in garbage dumps, but the real figure can be much higher.
History of Polina (Poland)
14-year-old Polina became pregnant as a result of rape. She and her mother decided on an abortion. The district prosecutor issued a permit for the operation (Polish law allows abortion if pregnancy occurs as a result of rape). The girl and her mother went to the hospital in Lublin. However, the doctor, a "good Catholic", began to dissuade them from the operation in every possible way and invited a priest to talk with the girl. Pauline and her mother continued to insist on an abortion. As a result, the hospital refused to "commit a sin" and, moreover, published an official release on this matter on its website. History got into the newspapers. Journalists and activists of the pro-elite organizations began to terrorize the girl by phone calls.
Mother took her daughter to Warsaw, away from this hype. But even in the Warsaw hospital, the girl did not want to have an abortion. And at the door of the hospital, Polina was already waiting for a crowd of furious prolayfers. They demanded that the girl abandon the abortion, and even called the police. The unfortunate child was subjected to many hours of interrogation. A Lublin priest also came to the police, who claimed that Polina allegedly did not want to get rid of pregnancy, but her mother insisted on abortion. As a result, the mother was restricted in parental rights, and Pauline himself was placed in a shelter for minors, where she was deprived of a telephone and allowed to communicate only with a psychologist and a priest.
As a result of the instructions "on the way true," the girl had a bleeding, and she was hospitalized.
As a result, Polina's mother still managed to get her daughters to have an abortion. When they returned to their hometown, everyone was aware of their "crime." "Good Catholics" craved for blood and demanded a criminal case against Polina's parents.
***
According to unofficial data, Poland has an entire network of clandestine clinics where women can have an abortion. They also go to interrupt pregnancy in neighboring Ukraine and Belarus and buy abortive Chinese tablets.
History of Beatrice (El Salvador)
In 2013, a court in El Salvador banned a young 22-year-old woman, Beatriz, from having an abortion. A young woman suffered from lupus and a serious kidney disease, the risk of her death while maintaining her pregnancy was very high. In addition, on the 26th week the fetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a disease in which there is no part of the brain and which makes the fetus unsustainable.
The attending physician Beatrice and the Ministry of Health supported the woman's request for abortion. However, the court considered that "the rights of the mother can not be considered priority in relation to the rights of the unborn child or vice versa. To protect the right to life from the moment of conception, a complete ban on abortion is in force. "
The court decision caused a wave of protests and rallies. Activists came to the Supreme Court building with placards "Take your rosary out of our ovaries."
Beatrice had a cesarean section. The baby died 5 hours after the operation. Beatrice herself was able to recover and discharged from the hospital.
***
In El Salvador, abortion is prohibited under any circumstances and is equated with murder. Several women "shake" the real (up to 30 years) time for this crime. However, such severe measures do not stop women from trying to interrupt pregnancy. The unfortunate turn to clandestine clinics where operations are done in unsanitary conditions, or try to do abortions on their own using hangers, metal rods and poisonous fertilizers. After such "abortions", women are taken to city hospitals, where doctors "hand over" to their police.
Of course, abortion is evil. But the above stories and facts indicate that there will be no good abortion ban. Perhaps, it is necessary to struggle with abortion by other methods, such as increase of allowances for children, creation of comfortable conditions for their upbringing and programs for material support of single mothers?