The Russian parliament has taken up a bill to “ban the ideology of childlessness and the childfree movement,” Radio Svoboda reported. The new legislative initiative would aim to combat “disrespect for motherhood” and “protect traditional spiritual values.”
As Radio Svoboda noted, the head of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin informed on Telegram about the commencement of consideration in the lower house of parliament of a draft law on “banning the ideology of childlessness and the childfree movement”. The official Russian news agency TASS wrote that the term childfree means “denial of having children”.
The bill envisages a ban on “childlessness propaganda” on the Internet, in the media, advertising and video. It also provides for fines of up to 800,000 rubles (about 7,700 euros) for individuals and up to 5 million rubles (about 48.2 thousand euros) for legal entities. In addition to the fine, foreigners face administrative arrest for up to 15 days and expulsion from Russia.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the bill introduces changes to the Code of Offenses in the provision on liability for promoting non-traditional sexual relationships and gender reassignment.
LGBT rights in Russia are highly controversial. In November 2023 Supreme Court he considered the activities of the “international LGBT movement” as extremistIn March of this year, the “international LGBT movement” was included in the list of extremist and terrorist organizations. The media reported this, citing the list of organizations published by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
Government insists on clarification on 'refusal to have children'
Radio Svoboda wrote that, according to Volodin, the indicated changes are necessary due to the fact that “social networks show disrespect for motherhood and fatherhood, aggression towards pregnant women and children, as well as towards members of large families.”
As the website writes, a number of high-ranking government officials have already spoken out in favor of introducing the ban, including Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko.
On Monday, the Russian government backed a new initiative by Elvira Aitkulova, a member of parliament from the ruling United Russia party.
“The concept of the bill, which aims to preserve and strengthen traditional Russian spiritual and moral values and create an effective mechanism for their protection, deserves attention,” it was reported. The Russian government supported the bill with the reservation that “the legal definition of the term refusal to have children should be clarified.”
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