Russia’s Orthodox Church plans to give pregnant women in the northwestern Tver region letters urging them to give birth instead of having an abortion.
The Tver diocese announced earlier this week that a letter penned by Metropolitan Ambrose of Tver and Kashinsk will be sent out to regional prenatal centers at a time when women “face the most difficult choice of keeping or killing their baby.”
“It’s important to remember in this time of joy and worry that you’re not alone. God, the church and society are with you. You can always count on us,” the letter reads. “We are all together part of the great sacrament of creating new life with your participation.”
Tver diocese spokesman Alexander Dushenkov emphasized that copies of the Metropolitan’s letter will be distributed “primarily to Orthodox future mothers” starting next week.
“If the migrants are Orthodox Christians, they can probably look at it. And there are no prohibitions for people of other religions, but we usually don’t offer [the letters] to them,” the Podyom news website quoted Dushenkov as saying.
Tver is among several Russian regions that have introduced fines for “coercing” women to have abortions, as well as ban social media memes promoting “childfree ideology” amid concerted efforts to boost birth rates and reverse Russia’s demographic crisis.
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