РПЦ разъяснила свою позицию об абортах после изнасилований

The Russian Orthodox Church does not believe that a girl can have an abortion, even if she is raped, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev, HEAD of the department for external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, said on the RUSSIA 24 TV channel.

“The opinion of the church is that even if a girl becomes pregnant as a result of rape, this is not a reason to have an abortion, because a child is a living being, and we have experience working with such girls,” Illarion said.

The ROC has repeatedly declared its intolerance towards abortion. So, in May last year, the church proposed to ban clinics from providing abortion services during the CORONAVIRUS pandemic, arguing this by the risk of contracting covid-19 .

Later, Anna Kuznetsova, Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of Russia, proposed cutting funding for abortions, as well as limiting the sale of drugs necessary for this procedure in pharmacies. The ROC then supported this idea.

At the same time, the Ministry of HEALTH stated in November last year that it does not support such initiatives.