New legislation in Russia tackles childlessness propaganda
For three years, Russia has been experiencing a demographic catastrophe. The Kremlin aims to address this issue with controversial legislation "in defense of traditional values." This law bans childlessness propaganda.
The new legislation bans the so-called childfree propaganda, or the conscious decision not to have children. Promotion of this choice will not be allowed in any media, Russian films, or advertisements.
According to the legislation, initiated by the ruling United Russia party, childlessness cannot be promoted on social media either.
Defense of traditional values
The authors of the legislation, led by Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, argue that "the ideology of childlessness" is contrary to Russian "traditional values", which are centred on a "strong family." They claim that childlessness leads to the "degradation of social institutions."
Once the legislation takes effect, those promoting conscious childlessness will face severe penalties. For promoting childlessness, for instance, on the internet, one can face a fine of up to 400,000 rubles (over $5,500 CAD). For advertisements with similar content, fines can be as high as 5 million rubles (about $68,000 CAD).
Demographic catastrophe in Russia
Russia has been grappling with a demographic catastrophe for many years. The invasion of Ukraine has only worsened this condition. According to data from the Russian statistical office (Rosstat), last year, just over 1.2 million children were born in Russia. For comparison, in 2014, over 1.9 million children were born. The situation was worse only in the 1990s, right after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Kremlin includes millions of residents from the occupied territories of Ukraine in its statistics. Without these numbers, the population of Russian citizens would have drastically decreased over the past three years, also due to the thousands of soldiers fallen in the war.
The Russian authorities have also increasingly vocalized the need to limit abortions, which can currently be performed on request, under health insurance, up to the 12th week of pregnancy. In 2022 alone, over 500,000 abortion procedures were performed.
Source: rp.pl
