"Propaganda" promoting a child-free "lifestyle" was banned by Russia in the country's latest attempt to boost one the lowest birth rates the country has had in decades.
The bill barring all media that promotes "rejection of childbearing" was voted on unanimously by the lower house of parliament. The ban on "child-free propaganda" would affect all "destructive content" seemingly promoting the idea in most available content, such as film and media, as reported by CBS News.
The bill now heads to the upper house of parliament, where it is expected to also receive support from lawmakers. Vladimir Putin is also expected to sign the bill, as reported by Reuters.
Anyone found promoting "child-free propaganda" will be fined up to 400,000 rubles, or about $4,100, for individuals and up to 5 million rubles, or about $51,600, for organizations and businesses, as reported by the Moscow Times.
Russia is currently experiencing its lowest birth rate since 1999 as the country continues in its ongoing war with Ukraine.
"We 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's personality," Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the lower house and a senior Putin ally, told legislators, as reported by Reuters. "Everything must be done to ensure that new generations of our citizens grow up centered on traditional family values."
Meanwhile, others claimed that the cost of living is the problem, not propaganda. "People want children, but there's no money. That's why people are not having children. Not because someone somewhere wrote something," Alina Rzhanova, a 33-year-old from Yaroslavl, Russia, told Reuters.
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