Moscow, February 14, 2017
Photo: BBC
The Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church and Society and Media Vlaidmir Legoida has stated that the steps taken in the US to ban funding of abortions from the state budget are welcomed by the Moscow Patriarchate, and resonate with its own initiative to remove abortion from Russia’s obligatory medical insurance.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill in late January that forbids allocating budget funds for abortion and the granting of tax creds to employers who buy their employees insurance that includes abortion. Additionally, on January 23, President Trump signed an executive order abolishing the financing of international NGOs that provide or pay for abortions.
Legoida noted that the Episcopal Conference of the Roman Catholic Church in the US has supported these measures, according to the site of the Moscow Patriarchate. These measures “attest to the general Christian view of the sanctity and inviolability of human life from the moment of conception,” said the representative. This view is also reflected in the Russian Church’s aim to remove abortion from the medical insurance system, “supported by hundreds of thousands of people through online voting.”
Legoida also noted that the pro-life movement in Russia has found the support of conservatives in America, as was stated during a recent meeting with Brian Stephen Brown, President of the World Congress of Families and President of the National Organization for Marriage in the USA.
