Epress.am News from Armenia
A Law on Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights of Humans was approved in Armenia in 2002 — according to its 10th article, women can have an abortion up to 10 weeks into their pregnancy. That is, the law prohibits abortions after 10 weeks, which is the most widespread as it’s possible to determine the fetus’ sex only after the 12th week, said Dr. Vahe Ter-Minasyan, speaking to reporters in the Armenian capital today.
“More and more women are opting for abortion. Raising children in such social conditions is becoming increasingly difficult. People want to have a male child. If the first child is a girl, they undoubtedly want the second to be a boy because they don’t plan on having a third child. A few years down the road we’ll have a complex demographic picture; that is, there will be more boys than girls,” he said.
Dr. Ter-Minasyan also recalled the damage that an abortion can cause to a woman’s health. “To opt for an abortion is merely a question of ignorance. If women and their husbands knew how much damage an abortion causes to a woman’s health, they would never choose it,” he said.
Reverend Father Kyuregh Talyan of Surb Katoghike (“Holy Catholic”) Church in Jrvezh of the Kotayk Diocese, also present at the press conference, spoke about Christianity’s grounds for rejecting abortion. “To justify such murder comes from a new religion prevailing in Europe — the religion of ‘human rights’,” he said.
According to the priest, 4 million people have died as a result of abortions — more so than in any war. Human life is the greatest value before God, he continued, “even a small life of one who has not yet come into this world.”