A draft law has been submitted to the State Duma to prohibit the propaganda among minors of the ideology of the free child, that is, the voluntary refusal to have children. RTVI asked MPs what they thought of the proposal.
The authors of the bill were Lower House Deputy Elvira Aitkulova and the Bashkortostan State Assembly (Kurultai). This is their second attempt to promote the document at the federal level. The first bill to ban childless ideology was submitted to the State Duma in September 2022.
In the explanatory note to the document, MPs note that under current conditions, “the propaganda of conscious infertility leads to the degradation of public institutions and the erasure of traditional value orientations”.
By notice Chairman of the State Assembly Konstantin Tolkachev, the idea of ​​voluntary renunciation of procreation “reduces the meaning of human existence to the satisfaction of personal needs”, and “the ideas of idleness and lack of child are the most dangerous for the minds of immature children”.
Elvira Aitkulova, in turn, noted that since the last submission of the bill to the State Duma, the relevance of the proposal has increased. “Meanwhile, the approach to the protection of traditional values ​​has become clearer and more consistent. The ban on propaganda of non-traditional relationships has been strengthened,” she said in late February, pointing out that “the concept of the bill is fully consistent with the information policy of the state”.
Tatyana Butskaya, First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children
Apparently, the bill was being finalized, since our committee had already considered such a bill, which was sent back to the authors for revision due to the fact that this part was taken into account in the bill on (the propaganda ban) LGBT. Everything that is not traditional, including without children, is taken into account there. I would take the time to read the new wording of the bill.
As for childlessness, there are statistics: we have about 5% of women who, due to their physiology, cannot give birth to a child, and 5% is the maximum. When we start interviewing girls around 20 years old, the percentage of those who say “no, I don’t want to” is high, and it increases year by year, and it seems to us that everything is bad, how many between them those who are against now. When we look at the age of 26-30, we see that we remain at the level of 5% – anyway, nature takes its toll, anyway, the desire to have a child, the family will take away. (Question) at what age, everyone is different.
I would work on the terminology. I’m sure that as soon as there is a certain description, a certain term, followers appear. The term childless appeared, someone might think that since there is a certain term, apparently, it is normal, which means that I am also in this group of comrades who are against it. If there is no term, then there is no one to reach.
We don’t need to fix terminology where we don’t want subscribers. If there are those who do not want to have children, want to live for themselves, let’s call it long Russian phrases and try to join them – you will not join them.
Yana Lanratova, First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on Education
I have been dealing with this topic for a long time, I have repeatedly pleaded for a ban on propaganda without children. I am convinced that the initiative should not only cover children, but that a complete ban on the propaganda of standards of behavior historically foreign to our country is necessary.
In Russia, the idea of ​​refusing to have offspring, apart from cases of health problems, is an idea that seems unnatural and blasphemous to most people. However, it should not be forgotten that there is a notable progress in the promotion of this vision of life: childlessness is becoming more and more.
It seems to me that it is worth asking a simple question: “Who benefits from it?” “. I believe that those who are interested in the collapse of Russia, the maximum obstacle for our country to take its rightful place on the international scene. In fairness, it should be noted that such propaganda is carried out not only in Russia – many countries are attacked.
We started working on a bill introducing a total ban a long time ago. This is a reaction to numerous appeals from representatives of the parent community. And we are parents ourselves, so we fully share their concern. Sometimes it gets crazy – girls, not knowing what they’re doing, go get sterilized, but there’s no turning back.
