Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values, has got some mad smarts. He saw through all the hullabaloo concerning Vladimir Putin’s decision to end American adoptions of Russian children.
Why?
Kengor writes at Catholic Exchange:
The reality is that Russia continues to hemorrhage population. Russia’s population is projected to plummet from 140 million to 104 million by 2050. And what are the chief causal factors? There are several, but the two biggest are abortion and contraception—which occur at astonishingly high levels. Putin has tried to reverse both.
Abortion has wreaked havoc on Russia since the Bolsheviks legalized it a century ago. Soviet communists were way ahead of American liberals. By the 1970s, when abortion was legalized in America, the Soviet Union was already witnessing a staggering 7.2 million abortions per year.
The Cold War ended in the 1990s, but Russia’s runaway rates of abortion—as well as contraception—did not.
In response, Vladimir Putin has implemented the first restrictions on abortion in Russia in almost 50 years, limiting abortions to within 12 weeks. He even initiated a National Fertility Day.
Unfortunately, none of this has really worked.
Poor Putin. Pulling his few hairs out because of the demographic disaster befalling Russia. There is something to be learned here though. Russia, as Kengor points out, has made abortion illegal after 12 weeks. There’s probably ways around it but still. That’s a big move that shows you just how desperate the situation is. But the fact that abortions still continue unabated shows us that you can’t legislate abortion away. You have to convert it away. I’m all for the law recognizing the unborn as individuals with rights but abortion won’t truly stop unless people realize and accept that life is sacred.
Abortion is a symptom of seeing other people as means to an end. Christianity refutes that line of thinking.
This is just a long way of saying that many countries on this planet are in a demographic nose dive and no amount of government action can save us. Only love has the power to do that.
And I for one, don’t really feel the love from Vladimir. You?
January 10, 2013 at 7:18 pm
How would you know? Surely you realize our knowledge of Putin comes through a pro-western propagandistic lens. He might be very loving. Russian has never sounded particularly loving to Western ears.
I wonder, if Putin started to change Russian law, could he change it in a way that I would find it more likely that I could marry and raise a family the way I see fit? If it looked like I could do that in Russia, and it look legit (not like the fake 'hey go waste your money on this degree and you'll be able to get a real job later' we get here) then I'd go there.
While the jury is out on the love, hope certainly breaks in through the cracks. Even if he is acting out of selfishness, one still hopes, because clearly he has an incentive to stop the crazy anti-life laws. If he gets competitive with the rest of the world's nations, there may be even more cause for hope.
January 10, 2013 at 8:18 pm
Putin was an assasin for the KGB before he became president.
January 10, 2013 at 10:18 pm
To be fair, Russia isn't required to provide children for rich Americans to adopt.
January 10, 2013 at 10:34 pm
Russia's negative population growth is old news. However, I expect Dobby-the-House-Elf is banning American adoptions from a profound sense of hissy-fit-ness.
A young couple of my acquaintance adopted two children from Russia, and are giving them a wonderful family life. God bless them all.
January 10, 2013 at 11:28 pm
Putin is a back room dealing, power mongering, egotistical political pragmatist. And is STILL less so then some western politicians we name. Yes he was int he KGB and killed people for his country, how many western politicians have served in militaries or intelligence services, what, does that make them good because the governments they were killing for not communist? But that is beside the point, Patrick is right that Putin is not going about tackling the Abortion problem through love as Catholic teaching says is neccessary. He's still doing a hell of alot more then any leader in the west is doing. Although I suppose I am a bit defensive when it comes to attacks on Russia by my fellow westerners, we are NOT doing ourselves any favours by throwing barbs and insults attempting to make the bear angry again much like our media wants us to do. Russia is a huge market and is making leaps and bounds in modernizing and recovering from soviet oppression, they do not take kindly to being portrayed as the bad guys in… every bit of media ever, (hyperbole but you get my point), if they are pissed at the west to the point of almost wanting nothing to do with us, its kind of our fault, not for how we treated them during the cold war, but how we treated them after it.
January 11, 2013 at 3:29 am
Rich Americans? Certainly some couples who adopt have funds to spare, but many others make great sacrifices to lovingly bring children into their homes from countries all around the worlld. how about all the special needs adoptions that happen every year? Are you aware of the fate of kids with conditions such as down syndrome who 'age out' while waiting in orphanages around the world? We have a 10 year old son with spina bifida whom we adopted from a former soviet country. In his home country, there has never been a single domestic special needs adoption. No, Russia isn't required to 'provide babies' for Americans. But what are they doing with the hundreds of kids in their orphanages?
January 11, 2013 at 3:09 pm
Probably the same as other countries are doing with the kids in their orphanages, including America. Either way you look at this situation, (including all the background politics and shadier reasons behind this ban) there is legitimite human rights concerns for this ban even if it isnt widespread enough to justify it more solidly. Russia is concerned about America's total lack of either regulation or, in Russia's eyes, punishment over American parents who have abused and neglected Russian children they have adopted with some recent cases even resulting in the death of adopted Russian children. This is not the majority of American-Russian adoptions, but its enough to piss Russia off apparently, less out of bad parents existing but America's lack of concern where Russian nationals are concerned, which is what the Children are.
January 11, 2013 at 8:15 pm
If only all Christians had stood up for life 40 years ago the incalculable blood sacrifice of our unborn would not be in the tens of millions. But Christians did not stand up for life.
Our local abortuary, "planned parenthood", has three nearby churches: The Catholic church prays for its closing and hosts pro-life efforts. The lesbian Episcopal "minister" is pro-abortion and so is the Lutheran church two doors down.
January 13, 2013 at 2:41 pm
The demographics don't lie regarding population implosions, but the ban seems strategically timed to punish the US for refusing to allow immigration of Russian criminals to the USA. It is mostly a face-saving, power maneuver (though I'm sure it's also partly because of a few high-profile tragedies where Russian children were abused by their US adoptive parents).
If Russia were concerned about children, they would be encouraging their own citizens to adopt some of over 650,000 kids who are in state care. The conditions in these orphanages are horrifying — and if Putin were truly concerned about children in ANY way, he would be improving the conditions for them.
We are an adoptive family, and the ban frightens us — even though our kids aren't from Russia, shutdowns for any country sometimes trigger shutdowns for other countries. Please pray that the doors stay open for these children to be welcomed into a family.
(BTW, the Russian ban is delayed for 1 year now — so the 40+ kids who had already met their new parents will be able to come home!)
January 13, 2013 at 5:04 pm
Is the creepy guy who is our current POTUS, who has blood lust for abortion and now is upholding homosexual marriage any better than Putin? I'm leaning toward Putin.
January 17, 2013 at 4:17 am
Dude, way to be a smug pro-lifer. Putin manages o accomplish more than any single feat of lobbying from any national pro-life organization and you find a way to pee on their parade. Good job.