Russia seeks escape from the Culture of Death

I read with interest Suzanne's post (Big Blue Wave) about the changing climate in Russia in regard to abortion. It seems the country has a fledgling pro-life movement brewing and, according to the LA Times, Russian abortionist Marina Chechneva is speaking out:

These days, Chechneva is writing magazine articles about fetus development in hope of raising public opposition to abortion. After years of handling fetuses, she explains, she has come to feel a responsibility toward the unborn children.

"They should realize that what they're doing is already a murder," she said.

But, she's not the only one trying to change minds:

"This is the decision of a lifetime," gynecologist Natalia Smirnova said. "It's very important for me to show them the ultrasound picture of their fetuses. This stops most of them."

And Russian women are feeling the pain the aftermath of abortion brings:

"You kill not only a child, a living being, but a part of yourself, something that was alive in you," said Irina, a 25-year-old Muscovite who has had three abortions. The young women who were interviewed declined to give their last names. "There's a trauma and a grief you suffer. You murder a child. It was much more difficult than I expected."

Still, Irina repeatedly chose abortion when she felt she was without options -- unemployed despite her university degree in accounting, married to first one man and then another who didn't want the babies. She never used birth control. She became pregnant, then went to the state clinic and waited in line for a no-cost abortion.

"It's like a conveyor belt," she said. "Women sit next to the abortion room in a line, and it happens very quickly."

Unfortunately, the changing climate may not be driven by Chechneva's understanding that abortion is murder but rather by the startling realization that as a people, Russia has destroyed its future through the abortion holocaust:

The government is desperate to persuade citizens to bear more children. Russians are dying faster than they're being born, a trend that has emerged as one of the most serious challenges faced by this sprawling, scantily populated land.

As Suzanne points out, the situation is schizophrenic with the now conscious institutionalization of legalized murder. Having been ravished by communism and a culture of death, Russians don't seem to know the path forward to life. And, the country appears to continue to rely on a messianic state rather than the true messiah. But, there is reason to hope ...