By\u00a0Ed Holt<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BRATISLAVA (IPS)\u00a0<\/strong>– \u201cA lot of people are very scared,\u201d says Zalina Marshenkulova. \u201cThis is obviously another tool of repression. The state is waging war on the remnants of free-thinking people in Russia and trying to suppress all dissent and freedom,\u201d the Russian feminist activist tells IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The warning from Marshenkulova, who left Russia soon after the country\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and now lives in Germany, comes just days after new legislation came into force in her home country banning \u201cchild-free propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the law, any person, organisation or government official deemed to be promoting a \u201cchild-free\u201d lifestyle or encouraging people, either in person or online, not to have children can face huge fines and, in some cases, may be deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While MPs have stressed the legislation would not infringe on the right of individuals not to have children, critics fear it will be used in what some have described as an ongoing \u201ccrusade\u201d by the Kremlin to promote a deeply conservative ideology centred around \u2018traditional values\u2019 and rejecting decadent Western ways of life\u2014even at the expense of women\u2019s reproductive rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWomen are already buying up all sorts of contraceptive pills [fearing they may not be able to get them in the future]. Abortions are already hard to get and that\u2019s only going to get even harder now,\u201d says Marshenkulova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The legislation, which came into effect on December 4, introduces fines for individuals spreading \u201cchild-free propaganda\u201d in broadcast media or online of up to 400,000 rubles (\u20ac3,840), while companies doing so can be fined up to 5 million rubles (\u20ac48,000) for the same offence. Foreign citizens who fall foul of the legislation will face deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its supporters have said the legislation is essential to protect Russia against a harmful Western ideology that could have devastating consequences for a country struggling with worrying negative demographic trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are talking about protecting citizens, primarily the younger generation, from information disseminated in the media space that has a negative impact on the formation of people\u2019s personalities,\u201d Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the lower house of parliament, said ahead of the vote. \u201cEverything must be done to ensure that new generations of our citizens grow up centred on traditional family values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But human rights groups and activists say they have grave concerns about it. They point out that it has similarly vague language to other repressive laws passed in Russia in recent years that have been used to persecute minorities, such as LGBT+ people, and government critics, including civil society groups, as well as opponents of the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The relative novelty of the legislation means it is hard to gauge how strictly it will be implemented and what exactly authorities will see as \u2018childfree propaganda\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it has already had some effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe law is vague and broadly formulated so we can\u2019t predict what things will be considered punishable\u2014no one knows,\u201d Anastasiia Zakharova, a lawyer at the Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre, told IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor example, a situation where women share publicly things like how hard it can be as a mother, how difficult it can be raising kids\u2014will that be considered childfree propaganda? We have already seen that groups on social media where women talk about how hard it is raising children and being a mother have closed down to avoid potentially being fined. This law will have a chilling effect on what people will say,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others say experience with Russian laws such as those introduced in the last decade banning \u201cLGBT+ propaganda\u201d provides a guide for how this legislation could impact women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is another part of the Kremlin\u2019s harmful \u2018traditional values\u2019 crusade. It will limit women\u2019s freedom, their reproductive freedoms, and will stifle freedom generally,\u201d Tanya Lokshina, Europe and Central Asia associate director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can predict what the effects of this law will be because it is similar to the anti-LGBT+ propaganda law in Russia and we have seen the effects of that. It\u2019s not so much that this kind of law targets individuals; it\u2019s about purging the cultural arena of anything that could be even vaguely interpreted as propaganda,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said while this could see a vast amount of films, shows and books disappearing from shop shelves, TV schedules, and online streaming services\u2014\u201dfor example, a \u2018romcom\u2019 film in which you see a woman in her thirties with no children pursuing her career\u2014anything like that is going to be outlawed. Can you imagine how many films, TV shows, books, etc. might have to be banned because of that? It\u2019s mind-boggling,\u201d she said\u2014it could also significantly impact reproductive health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWill children be able to get information about abortion and birth control? We saw what happened with the anti-LGBT+ law when teachers and others who should have been helping them could not, or would not, talk about [LGBT+ sexual health issues]. If children needed help, they couldn\u2019t get it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other rights activists agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere will be problems for women to get information about abortions, contraception, and other reproductive health matters and it will be particularly difficult for young people who already might already be struggling with getting hold of information on these things and now won\u2019t have any way at all to access it,\u201d Natalia Morozova, Head of the Eastern Europe\/Central Asia Desk at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), told IPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This comes at a time when women\u2019s access to abortion is already being curtailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elective abortion is legal in Russia up to the 12th<\/sup> week of pregnancy, and in some exceptional cases, such as rape, up to the 22nd<\/sup> week. However, in recent years<\/a> there have been moves to limit access to the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laws have been introduced in some regions outlawing \u201ccoercing\u201d women\u2014the legislation defines this as persuading, bribing, or deceiving a woman into undergoing the procedure\u2014to have an abortion, while hundreds of private clinics across the country have followed a \u2018voluntarily initiative\u2019 supported by the Health Ministry and have stopped offering abortions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state has also introduced guidelines for doctors to encourage female patients to have children, but also to dissuade them from abortions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlready in state clinics in Russia, doctors put pressure on women to have children. There are women who have gone to a clinic and been questioned by doctors on why they have no children and why they don\u2019t want to have them yet,\u201d said Lokshina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Health experts have already pointed to the dangers of restricting abortions, with World Health Organisation (WHO) officials previously warning that bans on private clinics performing abortions would force more women in Russia into having surgical abortions rather than medical abortions. Private clinics mainly offer medical abortions, whereas state hospitals perform surgical abortions, which carry higher risks of complications, side effects and injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WHO also raised concerns that tightening access to legal abortions could lead to a spike in dangerous illegal procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This tightening of access to abortion and the passing of the \u2018childfree propaganda\u2019 law come as the Kremlin battles a demographic crisis amid rising mortality as Russia\u2019s brutal war in Ukraine grinds on and the country\u2019s birth rate falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data from statistics service Rosstat showed 599,600 children were born in Russia in the first half of 2024, which is 16,000 fewer births year-on-year and the lowest figure since 1999. Meanwhile, the number of newborns fell 6 percent in June to 98,600, which is the first time the number fell below 100,000. There were 325,100 deaths recorded between January and June, which is 49,000 more than in the same period of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kremlin has called the demographic situation a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d for the nation and lawmakers who backed the \u2018childfree propaganda\u2019 legislation see it as a way to help halt population decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Morozova said the Kremlin\u2019s main motive was bolstering its armed forces to continue fighting in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey want a population that produces soldiers, women that produce soldiers. The only goal of this regime is to produce as many soldiers as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Lokshina, the law will also give the Kremlin an extra tool in its fight against a group that many experts see as potentially the biggest threat to President Putin\u2019s hold on power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe most notable protests [against the Russian regime] since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine have been women\u2019s protests. The Kremlin sees women as being problematic and wants to silence them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it remains to be seen how the law will be implemented and interpreted by authorities in the future, some activists have already left the country<\/a> in response to its passage, fearing it could be used against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are doubts the legislation will have any effect on the birth rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Russian women who spoke to western media ahead of the legislation\u2019s approval said women\u2019s decisions on whether to have children or not are largely rooted in financial concerns at a time when the economy is struggling, rather than anyone else\u2019s opinion on their right to have children or not<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And research carried out by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) in October showed that 66 percent of Russians doubted fines for promoting childfree ideology would be effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe law has no potential to influence the birth rate,\u201d said Lokshina. \u201cIt is aimed at stifling dissent\u2014in this case, the rejection of so-called traditional family values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n