Christian Mother of Ten Asks President Putin to End Abortion and Support Families with Many Children (VIDEO)
"I want there to be more of us, because we have the best people and the best country in the world."
Speaking to a distinguished assembly of 6,000 influential Russians at the World Russian People's Council (WRPC) at the Moscow Kremlin, Maria Popova — an Orthodox Christian mother of 10 children — addressed President Putin, Patriarch Kirill, and numerous bishops and Russian lawmakers, encouraging Russia to support large families and implement pro-family policies. This wonderful speech was delivered on Tuesday, November 28, 2023. It was very well received by those in attendance, receiving multiple rounds of applause. A full transcript is included below.
A couple years ago, Maria and her wonderful family were featured in a story on Russian Faith:
Russian Couple Abandon Scientific Career to Raise a Large Family the Orthodox Way in the Countryside - Biologists Alexander and Maria Popov, parents of nine children, left their scientific careers and went to the countryside to create the most favorable conditions for the Christian upbringing of their children. The couple were interviewed by video link together, but from different places: Alexander from the village, and Maria from the maternity hospital where she had given birth to her ninth child the day before...
By now they have their tenth child, and they continue to live happily together in the Russian countryside.
Maria and her family are good friends of ours. They live west of us, about an hour drive from our house. She and her family have been guests in our home many times. We have been guests in their home as well. They are a wonderful, Christian, Orthodox homeschooling family. They live out in the country on a small farm, and they even speak English. 😊 I am grateful to know them as friends.
Without further ado, here is a full transcript of Maria’s remarkable speech:
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin), your Holiness (Patriarch Kirill), highly esteemed bishops, dear fathers, brothers, and sisters, I am grateful for the honor of being here.
My name is Maria, and I have 10 children. The year 2024 has been declared the Year of the Family. I really support this decision. A primary foundation of Russia is the family. And we want everything possible to be done this year so that we Russians will have more large families. And I say this as a simple mother of many children who does not make government decisions, but who does feel their consequences.
When a beautiful flower grows in a suitable place, it is supported and watered, and weeds are pulled that get in the way. The experience of our family, and other families, shows that a good life for a large family is impossible in the cramped conditions of city apartments. A normal large family needs their own comfortable home on their own land. This is not a whim, but a basic need. Otherwise, where will these flowers grow?
My husband and I are Muscovites with university education, and we moved to the Yaroslavl region. We cannot stay in the capital with our 10 children, because this is unthinkable in a city apartment. And all the large families we know either live in their own houses, or dream of living in them.
For a real revival of Russia with many children, we need individual housing construction, and not huge apartment complexes. We need low-rise suburban settlements with all the infrastructure, schools, clinics, playgrounds, and the like. It is much cheaper to establish preferential mortgages on houses than on city apartments.
After the birth of a third child in a family, the state could write off half of the mortgage, after the fourth two thirds, and after the fifth, the state could pay off the entire mortgage. In general, as a model, the family should be supported.
Of course, in order to change social stereotypes, images are formed by mass media information. Therefore, on the radio, on the Internet, and everywhere on TV, people should see good, happy, big families. You can't do without positive propaganda. And it is important for reasonable censorship to remove what is unnecessary and harmful, like weeds.
I will also speak about the inhumane problem of abortion. The Church equates this grave sin with murder. And we ask the government to protect us from abortion and the murder of children. It's a terrible situation.
As a healthy, socially prosperous, married, young mother, when I came to a private clinic for a pregnancy checkup, the doctors told me it's bad to have so many pregnancies, and they advised me to stop having children, even though it is profitable for them to provide paid pregnancy services. They prefer a monstrous inclination towards abortion and towards having few children, and their activity is neither supervised nor controlled.
Therefore, the state must be the first to introduce a ban on propaganda and on pressuring women to have abortions. And secondly, it should be legislatively prohibited to carry out surgical, medicinal, or any types of abortions, starting with private clinics.
And encourage in every possible way all doctors who refuse to perform abortions, that is, doctors who save and preserve children's lives.
Further, it is unfortunate that government benefits are based on family income. As a result, the majority of large families who are allocated these funds cannot receive them. Do you understand?
And parents seem to be faced with a choice: either they have to stay below the poverty line in order to receive subsidies and benefits, or they have to survive on their own, without help. That is, the choice is children or money. It's not right.
And only the state can protect us from Child Protective Services, by providing financial assistance to families with many children, regardless of the family’s financial situation. And that's the way it should be.
It would be good, as has already been said, to approve a unified status for families with many children. This is, of course, what most large Russian families expect.
And be sure to support young student families, so that our students would not be afraid of having children and fear being left with no money, no education, and no place to live.
What about mothers? Mothers are engaged in very hard but noble work, creating future generations. And if the mother received a decent child care allowance, increasing with the number of children, then instead of being forced to get a job, many women could devote themselves to their husbands and children.
A large family means the creative freedom to be yourself. It's an image of heaven on earth. This has been forgotten a little, but we don’t need new values. It's time for us to return to ourselves. And I want there to be more of us, because we have the best people and the best country in the world. Thank you for your attention.
Incredible speech.
Sadly, this input is likely to be almost completely incomprehensible, in the West.
One critical, relevant point was made: families are being forced to choose between money and children, apparently in Russia as well as in the West.
This is not just a question of extras, but also of essentials.
Many Western couples, have no hope of home ownership, without two incomes.
This is deliberate market manipulation in my opinion, aimed at population reduction, while indiscriminate immigration is encouraged, with massive social/moral costs.
Even when mothers would love to stay with their babies, they are usually forced to abandon them to "child care" and return to work, to enable home ownership goals.
Even schools are socially and morally dangerous environments.
Rental and high density suburban housing, are often inappropriate for raising healthy, happy children.
Nurturing healthy, happy adults too!
I noted in the introduction a mention of "dear fathers" but not "dear mothers".
Just an omission I guess.
I am 100% with Maria on this.