Russian Pro-Life Advocates Protest Abortion With Cross Display 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 31, 2008
Moscow, Russia (LifeNews.com) — With abortion used mostly as a form of birth control in this massive nation, Russian people aren’t known for their pro-life outreach. However, a group of pro-Kremlin youth set up a cross display on Monday to remind citizens there of the human lives destroyed via abortion.
The youth planted about 200 crosses as part of a year-long campaign to highlight pro-family issues in Russia.
The mock cemetery was set up in Pushkin Square under a giant poster with a child’s doll and the words, "One of the 10 commandments given to humanity by God: Thou shalt not kill."
According to an AFP report, the youth were part of an Orthodox Christian church group.
Boris Yakemenko, who organized the display, told AFP that he hoped it would "awaken fear among the people" and convince them that "nothing justifies abortion."
The Orthodox Church has been more vocal about opposing abortion as the practice has created an underpopulation problem there. The Russian government and local governments have come up with unorthodox plans to try to increase the birth rate, including contests awarding money and appliances to the winners.
As recently as November, the Russian government’s health ministry approved an informed consent agreement that women having abortions are urged to sign.
The new agreement is similar to the Right to Know laws pro-life advocates in the United States have approved that require abortion practitioners to tell women of abortion’s risks.
The new informed consent document lists possible medical and mental health complications resulting from an abortion and women getting it would be told the fact that it is not necessarily a safe medical procedure.
Unlike American laws, abortion practitioners aren’t required to present the document but are urged to do so and to sign the consent form indicating they have presented the range of possible complications if they use it.
The Russian population has been shrinking since the 1990s as abortion became a means of birth control. The nation is the largest in the world but it has just 141.4 million citizens — less than half of the United States.
President Vladimir Putin, in May, defined the crisis as the nation’s biggest problem and the government is offering hefty bonuses to women who have a second child.
