Church insists on adopting the law excluding abortions from the system of compulsory medical insurance
May 19, 2015. The deputies of the State Duma introduced the draft law to eliminate state support of abortions as reports interfax.
Members of all State Duma factions have supported a bill allowing only state-run healthcare institutions to perform abortions and cancelling mandatory health insurance coverage for abortions. The press service of head of the State Duma committee for family, women and children Yelena Mizulina, a co-author of this bill, said that, according to the proposed document, performing abortions outside of state-run healthcare institutions should carry a fine of 50,000 rubles to 200,000 rubles for citizens, a fine of 500,000 rubles to 800,000 rubles for officials, and a fine of 500,000 rubles to 800,000 rubles for entrepreneurs who work without establishing a legal entity, if their actions do not have any signs of a criminal offence.
Legal entities may have to pay fines from 500,000 rubles to 2.5 million rubles or may be ordered to suspend their operations for a period of up to 90 days. “The artificial termination of pregnancy funded by mandatory health insurance will be possible only in the presence of certain medical or social reasons,” the press service said.
This initiative was criticized by Vice President Olga Golodets and speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko as reports the Interfax-religion.
The state should not finance abortions, the corresponding law should be adopted, the Russian Church officials believe. “Believers and society cannot financially participate in committing abortions and state laws should reflect it, head of the Synodal Information Department Vladimir Legoyda was quoted as saying by his press service.
According to the church official, some people claim that it is better to spend money on abortions than support poor mothers and education for children. “Perhaps, it is cheaper to kill than finance disabled and mentally disturbed people,” he resumed.
Head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax-Religion that “Russia will cease to exist with the current level of abortions, destruction of a family, pornography and unquotable words in Internet, perversions, hopes for foreign accounts and houses exchanged for entire control to “outside forces.” He also said that Orthodox churches collected signatures under an address for criminal punishment for abortion and suggestion to entirely exclude it from the country’s life, “thousands of people have already signed the document.”
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia suggested excluding abortions from the system of compulsory medical insurance speaking at the Christmas parliamentary meetings in January 2015.