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Kremlin mum on Duma initiative to ban gender reassignment

Dmitry Peskov noted that there were expert discussions in the parliament at the moment and it was too early to comment on the issue

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov chose not to give an assessment of the draft law banning gender reassignment surgery.

"If I'm not mistaken, there's still a provision about medical grounds, cases where it [surgery] is medically necessary. As for everything else - I'm not ready to talk about any position yet. You know, there are expert discussions in the parliament right now," he said, pointing out that it was too early to comment on the issue.

Earlier, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that the lower house of parliament may consider a bill banning gender reassignment surgery in all three readings before the end of the spring session.

This initiative was submitted to the State Duma in May by deputies from all five Duma factions, led by Volodin. It proposes to supplement the law "On the Fundamentals of Health Protection in the Russian Federation" with a provision that "prohibits medical operations aimed at reassigning a person's gender," including the formation of primary or secondary sexual characteristics. At the same time, the bill allows medical operations for the treatment of congenital sex formation anomalies in children, but only "by decision of the medical commission of the federal state public health facility."

The bill also introduces a ban on civil registry offices making corrections or changes to documents on the basis of certificates confirming gender reassignment issued by medical organizations.

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