Prayer rally against abortion held in St. Petersburg

Translated by: Voices from Russia

(annews.ru) - In St Petersburg, the local branch of the Orthodox Centre “Life” held an Orthodox prayer rally against abortion. The rally was timed to coincide with the feastday of the 14,000 innocents killed on the orders of Herod, which is celebrated on 11 January. The action took place on Nevsky Prospekt near the Kazan Cathedral and lasted several hours. Orthodox activists brought with them the icon of the Holy Infant-Martyrs of Bethlehem and a molieben was served before it. In addition, anyone could come, light a candle, and pray for the health and salvation of unborn babies.

They handed out leaflets to passers-by that said, “It is no accident that our rally occurs on the day of remembrance of the 14,000 Holy Infant-Martyrs of Bethlehem. Two thousand years ago, when Herod learned from the Magi about the birth of Christ, the King of Israel gave orders to kill all the babies in Bethlehem under the age of 2 years, for fear of losing his power, wealth, and honour. Today, in modern Russia, for the same reasons, for fear of losing wealth and pleasures, parents repeat Herod’s sin, they kill their babies in the womb and bring them to a painful death”.

The website of the St Petersburg Branch of the Orthodox Centre “Life” http://www.lifecenter.spb.ru/ said that many parents are pushed into this terrible sin by the greed of the people who make a living in the foetal business. Foetal cosmetics are cosmetics that use material obtained from aborted foetuses and they are much more expensive than the ordinary sort is. Products that contain human foetal tissue must be marked “Human” and “Foetal”. It is believed that such “miraculous” cosmetics must have the biological properties of a human embryo at the age of not less than 14 to 25 weeks, that is, they are the fruit of late abortions.

“Abortion for social reasons at a late stage of pregnancy is now banned. After the ban was put in place, the criminal foetal industry began to experience a shortage of biomaterials. However, they found ways around this. Now, consultations in prenatal clinics ask mothers to take tests to detect congenital pathology of the foetus. Often, these tests are represented as being mandatory, something that must be done”, according to the website of the “Life” Centre. After these tests, doctors tell some women that their child is defective, and are offered abortion as an alternative. Moreover, some of the diagnostic procedures are themselves dangerous. The foetal mortality rate in some of these procedures ranges from 0.5 to 3 percent. Meanwhile, as stated on the “Life” website, many women who refused to abort their babies on the advice of a doctor gave birth to healthy children.

According to the “Life” Centre, Russia now ranks first in Europe in the number of abortions. Every day, nearly 4,000 unborn babies are killed in our country.