With Russian President Vladimir Putin declaring 2024 the Year of the Family, the pressure was on lawmakers and local governments to go the extra mile.
They didn't disappoint.
From an intensifying campaign against abortions, new "family studies" classes for schoolchildren, and tougher hurdles to get divorced, last year saw Russia invade new territory in its fight for "traditional family values."
Anti-Abortion Drive
With a decades-long demographic crisis exacerbated by huge losses fighting the war in Ukraine -- a conflict Russia continues to refer to as the "special military operation" -- the Kremlin desperately needs a baby boom.
The first half of 2024 saw declining birth rates dip below levels seen in 1999, the last year of the decade often blamed for Russia's demographic trough.
Russia has long used material incentives to try to make citizens have bigger families.
Last year, those efforts went into overdrive, with regional administrations reserving cash handouts of varying amounts for mothers younger than 24.
In the Chelyabinsk region, student couples were made eligible for a million-ruble benefit ($10,000) providing both are studying at a higher education institution in the region.
But as they offered more carrots, Russian officials also gave themselves a bigger stick.
More than a dozen Russian regions have passed laws banning "coercion to abortion" in recent months, with fines of up to 100,000 rubles (just under $1,000) for doctors and employers who are judged to have forced advice on pregnant women.
Human rights advocates have warned that the opposite is now happening, saying women visiting medical clinics to get abortions now receive advice against it or find the procedure is repeatedly delayed under fabricated pretexts.
At the same time, the authorities have ramped up messaging against abortions in government institutions and at state universities.
In November 2024, a film promoting antiabortion messages produced by a channel associated with the Russian Orthodox Church began screening in cinemas. Special screenings were arranged for schoolchildren, university students, and government employees.
Now many Russians are worried that the authorities' call for a "special demographic operation" -- as Nina Ostanina, the head of the State Duma Committee for Family Protection, termed it -- might some day culminate in a de facto ban on abortions.
In 2024, lawmakers proposed to amend the law On the Basics of Healthcare in the Russian Federation in order to include the concepts of rights "before as well as after birth."
Taking On 'Childfree Propaganda'
Fighting on a different front, Russia's State Duma passed a law in November 2024 that will punish "childfree propaganda." Promoting the virtues of voluntary childlessness can land organizations and individuals with fines of up to $45,000 and $4,000, respectively.
The new law is similar to legislation passed in 2022 prohibiting "LGBT propaganda," which built on legislation promoting "traditional family values" in 2013.
And in March of last year, Russia added the "international LGBT social movement and its structural units" -- a movement that does not actually exist -- to its list of extremist organizations.
Divorce Discouraged
As birth rates fall, divorces are apparently rising. Elena Mikhailova, an adviser at the state-supported Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), claimed that, in 2024, there were eight divorces registered for every 10 new marriages.
In September 2024, a lawmaker from Russia's ruling United Russia party, submitted legislation to the State Duma that would require courts to give spouses seeking divorce a three-month period to reconcile and mandate psychological consultations for the pair.
If it becomes law, couples would also be required to undergo "reeducation" in cases where they have underage children, or where one spouse wants to preserve the marriage while the other does not.
That part of the bill looks to be particularly threatening for victims of domestic violence, which remains rife in Russia and was partially decriminalized in 2017.
According to research by the Consortium of Women's NGOs, at least 2,284 women died from domestic violence in 2022–2023, 93 percent of them killed by their partners.
Patriotic Education
Meanwhile, the drive for "traditional family values" has found its way into Russian classrooms.
Beginning in September 2024, a new subject, Family Studies, was introduced in schools, with a mission to teach children that "family is the foundation of any state."
The data suggests, however, that Russians aren't ready to throw caution to the wind when it comes to family planning. According to the business daily Vedomosti, Russians flocked to pharmacies to buy contraceptives in the first half of 2024, spending 19.3 billion rubles (about $177 million) -- a record for the last five years.
