‘If the man decides, the woman will give birth’ How the Kremlin made women’s bodies part of its demographic strategy — Meduza
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Russia’s campaign to raise birth rates has grown more aggressive over the past year. The state has expanded pressure on women and girls, making abortions harder to access and promoting pregnancy as a social norm rather than a personal choice. Women seeking abortions now encounter clinics touting anatomically incorrect “embryo” dolls, priests offering spiritual guidance, and prayer services held before the “Helper in Childbirth” icon. The independent Russian outlet 7×7 spoke with women’s rights experts about the Kremlin’s crackdown on reproductive rights. Meduza summarizes its reporting.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/45052058

Russia is waging a renewed — and increasingly overt — campaign of reproductive pressure on women, says Irina Fainman, an activist and founder of the Emergency Contraception Storage Fund. In the name of boosting birth rates, authorities have spent the last year seeking to discourage women from having abortions while steadily decreasing access to safe procedures.

Measures that were once quietly implemented are now openly acknowledged. In November, for example, the Russian Orthodox metropolitan in Saratov issued a directive assigning a priest to every women’s health clinic in the city. Their task: dissuading women from having abortions by framing the procedure as sinful. “In the past, officials avoided drawing attention to priests working with women’s health clinics,” Fainman says. “Now they talk about it openly.”

Similar church-led anti-abortion campaigns have appeared elsewhere. In the Vologda region, the local perinatal center has held weekly prayer services before an icon known as the “Helper in Childbirth” since December. (The regional governor, Georgy Filimonov, is known for his anti-abortion views.)

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  • along_the_road@beehaw.org
    7·
    7 天前

    If Russia did not invade Ukraine they would not be facing a demographic collapse and wouldn’t have to resort to these tactics.

    • grober_Unfug@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      9·
      6 天前

      No matter the circumstances or reasons, forcing women to give birth is horrifying. Where this leads is pretty clear: a lot of women would rather live celibate than be forced to give birth. That in turn will convince men to go back to a time when husbands had the legal right to have sex with their wives no matter whether women wanted that, effectively legalizing rape. We have seen that before in history.

      Judging by what is happening currently not only in Russia but also in the USA, we are heading down a dangerous path. It’s crucial to stand against these oppressive measures and advocate for women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.

      The argument that “they wouldn’t have to do this if they just did (not) do xyz” is essentially saying that they have a good reason to do this because of what they shouldn’t have done in the first place.

      IT’S NEVER OK!