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Romania’s new pro-life movement is working to change the hearts of a skeptical society – LifeSite

(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon talks with Romanian pro-life activists Alexandra Nadane and Teodora Paul about the fast-growing pro-life movement in their country, the challenges of defending the unborn in a formerly communist country, and how they recruit young people to help build a culture of life.

Romania currently allows abortion for practically any reason until 14 weeks. Like many other formerly communist Eastern European countries, Romania’s abortion rates are quite high, says Nadane, president of the Romania for Life Association.

Paul, president of Students for Life Romania, adds that their primary goal is to build a culture of life by changing hearts and minds, helping women on the ground, and organizing grassroots events and activities to get young people involved in spreading the pro-life message.

There are challenges, though, such as Romanian skepticism of any policy that reminds them of their former communist regime, and the widespread judgment among the populace that abortion is not a matter of good and evil.

“During the communist period … abortion was illegal or restricted, but it’s better to say it was restricted because it wasn’t completely legal, it was restricted very drastically,” Paul says. “And because of this, people associate the banning of abortion with communism, and they believe that this was a right of women which was taken away from them. And all the people who are trying to say that abortion is bad … they’re basically accused of being communist and having a communist mindset.”

Despite these challenges, the emerging Romanian pro-life movement has been making significant progress over the past few years.

“Being pro-life is more than something that you do. It’s a thing that you believe in,” says Paul.

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