Russia has a baby problem. There aren’t enough babies – not close to enough. In 2009, there were 74 abortions for every 100 births in Russia, according to their own health ministry. You think that’s bad? Those statistics don’t even include pregnancies terminated at private clinics, or morning-after pills.

Russia’s fertility rate is only 1.4 children per woman – far below the 2.1 needed to maintain existing population numbers.

The Blaze reports:

Russia‘s Orthodox Church teamed with Conservative parliamentarians Monday to push legislation that would radically restrict abortions in a nation struggling to cope with one of the world’s lowest birthrates.

The legislation would ban free abortions at government-run clinics and prohibit the sale of the morning-after pill without a prescription, said Yelena Mizulina, who heads a parliamentary committee on families, women and children.

She added that abortion for a married woman would also require the permission of her spouse, while teenage girls would need their parents’ consent. If the legislation is passed, a week’s waiting period would also be introduced so women could consider their decision to terminate their pregnancy, Mizulina said.

The Soviet Union legalized abortion decades before most other countries so one could wonder if Russia is simply further down the line of suffering the consequences of legalized abortion.

Did everyone really think that killing the unborn had no consequences?

Sad that the reason countries like Russia are rethinking abortion is for financial reasons but I’m happy to see countries even considering the unborn at all. But it’s still not anywhere close to good news because the reconsidering of abortion for them has nothing to do with valuing individual life. It’s a cost thing. It’s still putting a pricetag on life. It’s just a slightly higher pricetag.