The Yaroslavl diocese called on hospitals to cancel elective abortions for a day

The social department of the Yaroslavl diocese called on private and public hospitals to cancel elective abortions for a day due to the annual local action against abortion operations, according to the website of the regional metropolis.

“On January 11, 2019, the Social Department of the Yaroslavl Diocese will hold an annual “Candle of Memory” event aimed at drawing attention to the problem of killing babies in the womb. As part of the action, the Church calls on public and private health care institutions to hold a “Day of Silence” and to refuse scheduled abortions on this day,” the press service writes.

The diocese associates the action against abortion with the day when the Russian Orthodox Church remembers the biblical story of the murder of Bethlehem babies on the orders of King Herod. Interfax writes that in 2018, on the day of the protest, local public hospitals did not perform abortions. According to a message on the archdiocese's website, in 2017 the regional Department of Health called on medical institutions to refuse to perform abortions on January 11.

Mediazona in 2017 The chief specialist of the department for organizing medical care for women and children at the Department of Health of the Yaroslavl Region, Elena Vinogradova, told that a ban on abortions was not introduced, but some hospitals themselves refused to carry them out on the day of the action. At the same time, one of the local hospitals reported receiving a letter from the department prohibiting abortions.