THE THIRD CAR RALLY against abortion took place in Moscow on May 29th in preparation for the celebration of International Children's Day (June 1st 2011).
Unfortunately, when the pro-life motorcade had only partly completed its planned route it was stopped by police, and a plain-clothes police colonel who arrived at the scene rudely prohibited the completion of the rally.
See Demographia.ru article and videos of the incident
The rally's organizer Igor Beloborodov who is a Russian demographer and leader of pro-life movement in Russia is quoted as saying:
'It is the third time we have carried out this peaceful and absolutely inoffensive action. One would think there's nothing wrong with public support of the demographic policy declared by the Government and the President himself […]
'We have thoroughly followed all the formal procedures: the appropriate notifications as well as examples of our flags and car stickers were given in advance to the Moscow mayor's office and GIBDD (State Road Safety Inspectorate). We also asked GIBDD for a police escort, but, of course, they didn't give it to us.
'We were supported by Russian Orthodox Church: some well-known Moscow priests, including archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin-the head of Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, have blessed our action.'The route of our car rally was previously planned and ran around the central part of Moscow. To avoid causing traffic jams, the rally was specially scheduled for Sunday afternoon.'Our organized motorcade consisted of 36 cars. All the cars were technically sound. All the participants were in good spirits. Some of them were appointed to be responsible for traffic safety, some for communication on the move, some for video shooting, etc.'The slogans on our flags, balloons and car stickers were also rather appropriate: 'Wait until the baby smiles, Save your child, Stop to abortion, Give life!', 'Abortions disgrace Russia, Abortions kill geniuses,' Abortions kill geniuses,' etc.
Besides Muscovites, there were people from some other Russian towns among the participants. One car driver was from distant Nigeria. Several families came to take part in the rally with their children.
