The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, called for a ban on “encouraging women to have abortions” in Russia in order to combat the demographic crisis, reports Ukrainian Pravda.

• “Unfortunately, the number of abortions in the country remains as high as before. Thank God there are some legislative initiatives aimed at reducing the number of abortions. For example, Mordovia recently adopted a law prohibiting the promotion of abortion. I hope this initiative will be supported in other regions and at the federal level… Russia really has a demographic problem. The country is huge, but there are not enough people. We are not even talking about the economy […] We really need more people, it’s obvious, everyone admits it – politicians and sociologists,” Kyrylo said at the beginning of the 11th General Congress of the Church on social service, RBC reports.

In early August, deputies of the State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia (part of the Russian Federation) adopted a law banning the promotion of abortion in the region. Later, a similar law was passed in the Tver region of Russia.

In July, the head of the Ministry of Health of Russia, Mykhailo Murashko, said that the country plans to strengthen control over the circulation of abortion drugs by the end of the year. The minister also called the desire to postpone the birth of children for the sake of a career as vicious.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes that abortions can be performed only with the consent of the husband, after pre-abortion psychological counseling and ultrasound examination. The State Duma promised to consider the issue of amendments to the legislation on abortion, in particular, reducing the term of termination of pregnancy from 12 to eight weeks. At the same time, women who have suffered from rape will be able to have an abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, instead of up to 22, as now.