Reproductive rights vs reproductive responsibilities: particularities of political gender discourse in Russia in the context of the population crisis

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the representation of women’s reproductive rights in the public discourse of modern-day Russia in the context of the deepening demographic crisis and conservative turn. Based on the analysis of the regulatory framework of demographic and family policy and the discursive analysis of political discourse, it is revealed how state and public actors articulate the contradiction between the reproductive rights of the individual and the practices of regulatory pressure that turn reproduction into an obligation to the state. It is shown that the decline in the birth rate against the ‘context of macroshocks and meso-shocks (military action, migration, economic risks), as well as structural factors (population aging, deformation of the age-sex pyramid, gender asymmetry of the labor market) is accompanied by the ideologization of family policy. The article identifies the key frames of political gender discourse: (1) patronizing and paternalistic, limiting women to the framework of “natural purpose”; (2) demographic-instrumental, reducing a woman to the function of fertility; (3) aggressively anti-feminist, marginalizing the struggle for gender equality; (4) moral-normative, legitimizing the feeling of guilt for “deviating” from the traditional family model. Based on the analysis of the programmes of political parties, speeches of reference persons (representatives of legislative and administrative authorities, activists of nonprofit organizations and religious figures), it is shown that women’s rights in public discourse are either ignored or replaced by the rhetoric of traditional values. Particular attention is paid to the legal trend of 2020-2025: restriction of abortion and ART, regionalization of anti-abortion policy, expansion of administrative sanctions, cooperation between the authorities and religious structures. The authors summarize that the representation of the issues in the field of reproductive rights is accompanied by institutional and discursive narrowing and by formation of a normative model of femininity as a set of maternal responsibilities. Taken together, these processes reproduce the conflict between the principles of gender equality enshrined in international documents and national political practices, in which women’s reproductive behaviour becomes an object of ideological control regulated by the state, the church and public organizations.