A Holy War for the So-Called Traditional Values: Why Russia Is Fighting Against Childfree People

“Everything that needs to be done to increase the birth rate must be done. And everything that hinders this, of course, must disappear from our lives,” the press secretary for Russian president Dmitry Peskov said in response to a question about whether the Kremlin supports the idea of banning childfree people, i.e. the conscious refusal to have children. Three days later, the government backed a bill banning “propaganda of the childfree ideology.”

How the offensive against childfree people is going on

In September 2022, a bill to ban the propaganda of childfree propaganda among minors was introduced in the State Duma. It was withdrawn, but in early 2023 it was reintroduced with minor changes. For example, Patriarch Kirill feared that information about the monastic way of life, which excludes childbearing, might be banned. The new draft passed the first reading, and in November 2023 it was sent for comments and suggestions.

“Supporters of the ideology of ‘childfree’ spread ideas that form the basis of destructive social behavior based on the voluntary refusal to have children, which goes against traditional family values and state policy of the Russian Federation. Thus, in modern realities, the propaganda of conscious childlessness, conducted by activists of the ‘childfree’ movement, leads to the degradation of social institutions, erosion of traditional values, and creates circumstances for depopulation of the population,” the explanatory note to the bill reads.

In the summer, the Ministry of Justice told about the preparation of a bill to ban childfree as an “extremism orientated” ideology. State Duma deputy Bijsultan Khamzaev asked the Ministry of Justice to ban childfree in the same way “as the movement in support of non-traditional sexual relations,” which was banned last November. The deputy admits that legally “the childfree movement” does not exist, but he is convinced: “At first glance, different-level organizations may seem like an unstructured movement, but in fact they are unified mechanisms with great influence, which do not appear out of nowhere and work on grants.”

Last week, Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko announced the need to ban childfree, and on September 23, state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti wrote that the government supported a bill on administrative punishment for “propaganda” of childfree “similar to the punishment for propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and gender reassignment.” The Cabinet of Ministers recommended modifying the document so that discussions of refusal to give birth to children for religious reasons, medical reasons or because of rape would not fall under the article. TASS named Elvira Aitkulova, a member of the State Duma Committee on Education, as the author of the bill; she also prepared the draft introduced in 2022.

For “propaganda” of childfree individuals will face a fine from 50 to 100 thousand rubles, officials — from 100 to 200 thousand rubles, companies — from 800 thousand to a million. “Propaganda” among minors doubles the fines, “propaganda” in the media and on the Internet will cost legal entities up to four million rubles.

Russian authorities have already accumulated a lot of experience in prosecuting non-existent organizations. In addition to the “International LGBT Movement,” these include the “extremist movement” A.U.E. (translated as “Prisoner's Criminal Unity”), the “terrorist international youth movement Columbine,” and the “interregional public movement I/WE Sergei Furgal.” Judging by the government’s withdrawal, in the case of childfree, there is no talk of “extremism” and “terrorism” yet.

If the law banning childfree people is passed, it is likely that people who speak out publicly on the subject of not having children, for example on social networks, will be under attack. Blocking of groups has already begun: in August, a court in the Tver Oblast ordered the blocking of three VKontakte groups with memes on the topic of childbirth.

How many childfree people there are in Russia

Olga Isupova from the Institute of Demography at the National Research University Higher School of Economics estimates that there are about 5% of true childfree people in Russia. These people have an aversion to pregnancy, the process of childbearing and breastfeeding and all the processes associated with children. In addition, there are many reasons why people may refuse to have children: someone is afraid of not having enough money, someone chooses a lifestyle incompatible with raising children, someone does not want to give birth in a world full of wars, injustice, environmental problems, etc.

Whether it is possible to reliably calculate the share of these people in modern Russia is a big question — especially given the attention (at least in words) Vladimir Putin pays to demography. According to a May poll by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center, only 6% of Russians consider it ideal for a family to have no children. A Russian Field poll showed that 17% of childless Russians do not want to have children.

“Those who consciously classify themselves as representatives of childfree are relatively few, although there have been no accurate statistics in Russia, and in such conditions, where serious punishment may be threatened for this, there won’t be,” said demographer Salavat Abylkalikov, a PhD candidate in sociology, a Cara Fellow, and a visiting researcher at Northumbria University (UK).

Will the ban on childfree people help increase the birth rate

In 2023, Russia had the lowest number of children born since 1999 — 1.264 million. The total fertility rate (TFR), i.e. the number of newborns per woman, amounted to 1.41 — the lowest figure since 2006.

The decline in the birth rate in European countries, including Russia, is a fundamental process, says Salavat Abylkalikov: “The point is the demographic transition, in which the equilibrium of high mortality and high birth rates is replaced by a new equilibrium of low mortality and low birth rates.” At the same time, birth rates are now higher in the United States, Western Europe and Scandinavia than in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. “Can we say that Italy, Spain and the Baltic countries have childfree ideas more developed than the US or the UK?” — asks the expert.

The reason for the low birth rate in Russia is that the small generations of the 1990s and early 2000s have entered reproductive ages. The small and every year decreasing number of potential mothers will not give birth to many children, even if the birth rate suddenly rises, Abylkalikov explains: “According to my rather rough estimates, in order for the number of births to at least remain at the same level as in the last few years, a total fertility rate of at least 1.7–1.8 annually until the mid-2030s is required. Taking into account that the current TFR in Russia is about 1.4 and there is no reason for it to increase significantly, new anti-records in the number of births are ahead of us.”

If childfree has nothing to do with the birth rate, why are the authorities banning it?

The ban on childfree can be put on a par with the authorities’ actions to ban abortions, says journalist and feminist Zalina Marshenkulova, author of the “Women’s Power” Telegram channel. “Neither the ban on abortion nor the ban on childfree will increase the birth rate. Apparently, there are absolutely illiterate people in power who do not know either the history or the practice of banning abortion in other countries,” she said.

IStories previously told about whether the authorities’ fight against abortion promotes the birth rate and what their ban may actually lead to in our study.

“Russia is finally turning into the dystopia of The Handmaid’s Tale, where a woman is relegated to the role of an incubator that is forced by violence to reproduce slaves for the state,” Marshenkulova says.

Demographer Salavat Abylkalikov calls the fight against childfree activity imitation at a time when there is little money for demographic policy and few tools other than verbal interventions and bans.

The authors of the bill on penalties for “propaganda” of childfree people speak not only about the threat to fertility, but also about the “cult of idle childless life” inherent in this ideology. Childfree supporters are also accused of irresponsibility and selfishness.

When a person realizes that he or she will be a bad parent, it is better that he or she consciously refuses to have children, says Zalina Marshenkulova. “If a person wants to live only for himself and not waste his resources on children, there is nothing wrong with that. The main thing is that a person can admit it to himself. But what is really bad is that a huge number of people have children for whom and why. We have a huge number of abandoned children, single mothers, we have billions of rubles in child support debts. As George Carlin rightly said in his pro-lifers monologue: ‘They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own.’ That’s the absolute truth.”