Contributors

Monday, August 12, 2013

Putin's Russia: a Social Conservative's Paradise

Russia has become the new paradise for conservative social issues.

Repression of gays is government policy. Gay marriage is not only illegal: you can go to jail for telling children it's wrong to beat up gay men.

Most abortion is illegal after 12 weeks, and banned after 22 even in cases of rape. There's a two- to seven-day waiting period and women can't even get their tubes tied unless they're 35 or already have two children (articles 56 and 57 of the 2011 Russian health law).

Putin recently signed a law making it a crime to "offend religious sensibilities," punishable by one to three years in prison. Two women from Pussy Riot are still in prison for singing a critical song about Putin in a church.

Do American conservatives really want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with countries like Russia, Uganda and Saudi Arabia?

Republicans keep telling us that we have to defend our freedoms or we'll become like Russia. Yet they're trying to turn us into carbon copies of Russia and Saudi Arabia by letting religious zealots dictate our social and medical policies.

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