Women walk past an advertisement for military conscription in Moscow. Photo: EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV
The Russian government has backed proposed legislation that would introduce fines for anyone disseminating what it deems to be “child-free propaganda”, otherwise known as urging people not to have children, state news agency TASS reported on Monday.
According to TASS, the bill would introduce fines similar to those already issued for spreading the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” — the term used by the Russian authorities to describe LGBTQ relationships — which can be as high as 100,000 rubles (€1,000) for individuals and up to 1 million rubles (€10,000) for organisations. The fines are doubled for spreading so-called “propaganda” among minors.
The government noted in its review of the bill, quoted by TASS, that the “concept of a bill aimed to preserve and strengthen Russian spiritual and moral values, as well as to create an effective mechanism for their protection, is worthy of attention”.
The review added, however, that the bill should clarify the concept of “refusing to bear a child” to take into account people refusing to have children due to their religious beliefs, for medical reasons, or as a result of rape, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The bill was authored by Elvira Aitkulova, a State Duma deputy representing the ruling United Russia party, who said on her Telegram channel last week that members of different parliamentary factions were ready to back the bill and that they were currently working on reaching a “unified position” with the Russian government.
Though the proposed bill has not yet been introduced to Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Senate Speaker Valentina Matviyenko backed the potential legislation last week when she said in an interview that she thought the “child-free movement” should be “banned by law”.
When asked about the “child-free” ban on Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he couldn’t “say anything about it” yet, adding however that “raising the birth rate is one of the government’s key priorities … So we must do everything we can to boost the birth rate, and everything that prevents it should, of course, disappear from our lives.”
