Having blogged here recently about the Russian Revolution and the violence of the early Communists, I was struck by the news here that more than 300,000 Russians have signed a petition calling for “the end of the legal murder of children before birth”. The phrase “legal murder” is not one used in the UK by pro-life groups. I suspect this is because the wording is too strong for people’s stomachs; it might even be illegal and interpreted as a “hate crime”.
Russians are not so squeamish. Having endured 70 years of state-sponsored violence of all kinds – against political dissidents, against innocent people who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and against preborn babies – they are sick of it. The petition is aiming for a million signatures.
