Russian MPs approve ban on adoptions to pro-transgender countries

The bill is aimed at protecting children, according to State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin

The Russian State Duma passed a bill on Tuesday to prohibit the adoption of children to countries that allow gender-reassignment procedures.

The bill was submitted to the lower house of parliament in July by a group of MPs led by the Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

According to the chamber’s website, 411 MPs out of 450, or 91.3%, voted in favor of the legislation on Tuesday, with no one opposing the bill or abstaining from voting. Some 39 lawmakers did not participate in the vote.

The bill is aimed at protecting children from potential dangers, Volodin wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. “It is extremely important to exclude any encroachment on a possible gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries,” he said.

The legislation has yet to receive approval from the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, after which it would then be signed by the president.

If enacted, the legislation would prohibit the adoption of Russian children to any country that allows gender changes, whether through surgery, chemical puberty blockers, or simply via changes to identity documents without any medical intervention.

More than 100,000 children from Russia have been adopted by foreigners since 1993, according to Volodin, who described Western policies towards children as “destructive.” 

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According to the Duma chairman, ten European countries have no age restrictions for legal gender reassignment. These include Austria, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, and Switzerland, Volodin said. In eight countries, there is a minimum age for gender reassignment, he added, noting that it is allowed from the age of 12 in Spain, while it is permitted in Belgium from 16.

Residents in several countries are already prohibited from adopting Russian children. The 2013, the Dima Yakovlev Law banned adoptions by US nationals after a Russian orphan adopted by a Virginia couple was left in a car for nine hours and died of heat stroke. The same year, Russia also banned same-sex couples from adopting children.

Also on Tuesday, Russian lawmakers passed a law introducing fines of up to 5 million rubles ($51,000) for ‘childfree propaganda’. The MPs insist the measure would only target the dissemination of “destructive” child-free ideology, rather than personal lifestyle choices.

“We need to do everything possible to ensure that new generations of our citizens grow up focused on traditional family values,” Volodin stated.