Since the start of the full-scale war, pro-life organizations in Russia have become markedly more active. Their campaigns have included installations of children’s shoes with slogans about unborn children, and in October 2025 a chatbot was launched to collect complaints about alleged “coercion into abortion.”
One of the most visible groups is For Life!, which promotes the slogan “Zero abortions, three-plus families, a billion-strong Russia!” The movement has campaigned against abortion for years, but after 2022 it also adopted military rhetoric: it released banners with the letter Z, posted addresses by participants in the war against Ukraine, and held events at military units.
Several projects are tied to the movement. Coordinator Sergey Chesnokov, who also heads the Demographic Strategies center, advocates a total abortion ban, allowing an exception only when the mother’s life is at risk. He also promotes the idea of pregnancy as “service on the demographic front.”
The nationwide Pregnant Women’s Day also grew out of the movement. It is marked on April 7 and October 7 with support from the Russian Orthodox Church and United Russia. While the event took place in 16 regions in 2022, by 2025 it involved 84 regions, including occupied territories. Schools, kindergartens, maternity hospitals, and clinics hold themed sessions, distribute gifts, and often add a religious component.
The Everything for Pregnant Women project, led by For Life! board member Ioanna Pavlova, also trains specialists in pre-abortion counseling and promotes the “Student Mother” program, which describes early motherhood as making use of a “window of reproductive opportunity.”
According to the publication, from 2019 to 2023 a total of 57 presidential grants worth 113.5 million rubles were issued for abortion prevention; more than half of the recipients were directly or indirectly linked to the Orthodox Church. Those mentioned include the Union of Orthodox Women and the Women for Life foundation, founded by Natalya Moskvitina and Boris Korchevnikov. With Moskvitina’s participation, Mordovia adopted the first regional law banning “coercion into abortion,” and by October 2025 similar rules were already in force in 26 regions.