Credit: MBC, KBS1
On November 12th (local time), the New York Times and other outlets reported that Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, unanimously passed a bill prohibiting “propaganda” that fosters negative perceptions of childbirth.
Introduced in September and supported by the Kremlin, The bill is expected to be approved by the upper house of parliament and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov emphasized, “We must do everything to increase the birth rate. Anything hindering this goal must be eliminated.”
Russia has been grappling with a severely low birth rate and is implementing various measures to address it.
On the same day, the State Duma also passed legislation banning citizens of countries where gender reassignment is legal from adopting Russian children.
Last month, Andrei Gurulyov, a member of the State Duma’s Defense Committee, stirred controversy by proposing a “childlessness tax” akin to that of the Soviet era. He suggested that the revenue be used to modernize orphanages.
Since 2016, Russia’s deaths have outpaced its births, and this trend has worsened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, the number of births from January to June this year was 599,600, down 16,600 from the same period last year, marking the lowest level since 1999. The total fertility rate is also expected to plummet to 1.32 by the end of the year.
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