MOSCOW, December 8./TASS/. The Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) passed in the second and third readings on Thursday a bill banning foreign nationals from using the services of surrogate mothers in Russia.

The document was submitted to the State Duma by a team of legislators and senators in December 2021, and was approved in its first reading in May. Under the bill, only married citizens of the Russian Federation or single female Russian nationals, who can not carry or give birth to a child for medical reasons, may use the surrogate mother services.

Before giving the bill a second reading, the parliamentarians passed an amendment, under which spouses who give their consent to the embryo transfer, can be registered as the parents with the consent of the surrogate mother if one of them has died or one or both of the spouses or the single woman have stopped being Russian nationals.

Another amendment establishes the right of former spouses to be formalized as the parents of the child born by a surrogate mother only if the court does not find that their dissolved marriage was a sham.

The law will make it possible to put an end "to child trafficking, to protect babies against any situations in which they are placed into same-sex families or become victims of crime, including being sold for transplants," Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.

The head of the Duma committee for security and action against corruption, Vasily Piskaryov, who co-authored the initiative, said that "the ban does not affect the interests of Russian nationals who have problems with childbirth for medical reasons. They will be able to continue to use surrogacy".