MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma at a plenary session has passed in the second and third reading a bill banning the adoption of children from Russia to countries where gender reassignment is allowed.

The bill was introduced by a group of legislators headed by Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in July. It was passed in the first reading on September 25.

Russia’s Family Code is to be supplemented with clauses stating that adoptive parents cannot be citizens of a state "in which it is allowed to change sex through medical intervention, including the use of drugs aimed at changing sex, including the formation of a person's primary and secondary sexual characteristics of the other sex, as well as by making changes to identity documents confirming the sex of a foreign citizen without appropriate medical intervention."

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said earlier the initiative was to protect children from "potential dangers." He recalled that there were no age limits for legal gender reassignment in Austria, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and Switzerland. Another eight countries have set a minimum age for minors wishing to change gender.

"It is extremely important to prevent any encroachment on the possible change of gender by any means in case of adoptions to other countries," Volodin said.