Press Release, 06.02.2023

On 5 February, a picket (which managed to obtain the permission of the authorities) against the ban on abortion was held in Kolyushchenko Square in Chelyabinsk. Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the regional branch of Yabloko, as well as party members and supporters, came to the action to speak out against the ban on abortion in Russia.

The picket was organised by representatives of the feminist movement in Chelyabinsk after the proposal of Senator Margarita Pavlova to ban abortion in Russia in general. As an argument for the ban, the Senator recounted the much quoted proposal to give birth to more children, so that it “would not be so painful and scary for women to part with him (her son)” during the period of the special operation / mobilisation.

The leader of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko Yaroslav Shcherbakov expressed his certainty that the topic of the ban on abortion was thrown into the public discussion in order to distract people from the actual foreign policies and economic problems. According to Shcherbakov, the reaction of the pro-government media served as a confirmation of this. But in reality, there has been no increase in abortions in Russia. On the contrary, their number has been declining annually, from 1.1 million in 2010 to 553.500 in 2020.

“However, the real danger of accepting such proposals does exist because of the consequences of the conservative turn – the growing influence of the reactionary circles of the Russian Orthodox Church and their supporters on public opinion. Therefore, it is necessary to respond to such proposals of the authorities,” Yaroslav Shcherbakov said.

The Yabloko party has been consistently advocating for women’s reproductive rights. Return the perspective, create conditions for a decent life, and a woman, rather than the state or an incident, will make the right decision on how many children should be born.

Despite the fact that provocative materials about the event and its organisers were published by the conservative media the day before, the picket passed without provocateurs or negative incidents.