Authors

Ailbhe Cannon¹;  ¹ Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Discussion

This paper examines the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) as an anti-abortion lobbyist and influential anti-gender actor in contemporary Russia. While the Church’s promotion of traditional values and opposition to liberalism has received considerable scholarly attention, its concrete role in shaping reproductive health policy remains underexplored. Situating the ROC within the broader transnational anti-gender movement- a right-wing countermovement that opposes feminism, gender equality, and LGBTQ rights- this paper explores how the Church has actively sought to undermine women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy in post-Soviet Russia. The relationship between the growth in the political influence of the ROC, the increasing number of attacks on women’s rights, including sexual and reproductive rights, and the shrinking space for feminist activism is a vital area of research which this paper aims to address. Adopting a qualitative research design, the paper draws on primary sources including official Church documents, legislative texts, and public interventions by Church leaders as well as secondary literature. It combines document analysis to examine the Church’s discursive strategies, including its combination of religious and moral arguments to secular, scientific, and legal framings designed to influence a largely irreligious public and policy elite. This paper will also evaluate the success of the Church’s sustained campaign to influence abortion policy over the period 2010-2024 and will contribute to our understanding of the Church as a political actor in contemporary Russia.