Comments on: Russian Orthodox Church to provide financial aid for women deciding against abortion

By: Ivan Vasiliev

Ivan Vasiliev — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:57:14 +0000

My wife volunteers one day a week in a pro-life counseling center. Providing money (to pay rent, buy baby clothing, etc.), to help women who are contemplating abortion has changed more than a few minds because it helps remediate the overt physical concerns of many mothers to be. This organization helps mothers and children after their babies are born, too. It seems that a great many women who contemplate abortion do so out of fear; financial fears, fears of rejection by the father of the child, fears of rejection by other family members, fears for the future of all sorts. When an organization is willing to put its money and other resources where its mouth is, so to speak, it reassures the mother to be that they will be there in other ways, perhaps even more important ways, to render loving support. The Russian Orthodox Church has done a beautiful thing. The Church has said, “We will help in a material way to help overcome one of the great spiritual tragedies of our times”. Perhaps if our American Orthodox churches were to do something like this we would have more credibility when we speak.

Imagine, using our resources to help save mothers and children from spiritual and physical death!

Alas, that would deprive us of the resources we are squandering on internecine turf battles and outright civil war.

By: Scott Pennington

Scott Pennington — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:57:34 +0000

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/news/45589.htm

Above is the Russian version. I think it’s an idiomatic thing. Sometimes the deverbal used is translated as “dared” as well as “had decided”. It seems to refer to those who had already decided they were going to have an abortion due to financial considerations but have not yet done so. I think it’s just a circumlocution to convey the idea that there are women who may be tempted to abort for financial reasons whom the Church will assist in order to alleviate their financial concerns and thus prevent the abortion.

It’s interesting that Russia’s recent history of population decline (which according to some reports is in the process of being turned around) has resulted in the government, as well as doctors who may have no particular moral qualms against abortion, advising women to have their babies. The Russian government is apparently aware of the dangers of demographic winter.

By: Peter S. S.

Peter S. S. — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:56:02 +0000

It seems as though the very first sentence of the article is worded a bit awkwardly in English. I guess I am just assuming that money will be provided before the decision to abort as opposed to after, although I am sure that providing the money in order to change the decision of a mother is possible as well.

I greatly commend the ROC’s efforts here. Everyday I walk home from work, I see a sign with a woman on it that says in bold “MY ABORTION / MY LIFE”, and it says “Good Women Choose Abortion”; the woman on the sign, however, seems to show no kind of regret or sorrow–just smugness. I contemplate–although I know it will be torn off quickly–taping a piece of paper to make the main part read: “MY ABORTION / MY ^CHILD’S LIFE”. But my community is pretty set in its ways. I just feel especially bad that the sign is across the street from the childrens hospital.