MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) on Friday passed a bill, in the third and final reading, that bans gender reassignment surgery.
The bill, submitted by Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and the leaders of all five party factions in parliament, was passed on first and second readings in June and on July 13, respectively.
If enacted, the bill would amend the Law on the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Russian Citizens by adding an article prohibiting medical or surgical interventions and the use of pharmaceuticals or other medicines for gender reassignment purposes.
However, the ban would not extend to medical interventions aimed at treating congenital anomalies and birth defects, as well as genetic and endocrine diseases associated with atypical genitalia in children.
Performing such exempted medical interventions would be allowed only by decision of the medical commission of a healthcare facility subordinate to the Russian Health Ministry. Following any such medical intervention, the medical commission would issue medical reports on the conformity of the given patient’s gender characteristics with a specific gender. Under the bill, changes to civil registry records could only be made based on such reports. The bill also calls for amending the Law on Russian Citizenship by adding a provision that would automatically invalidate a Russian national’s internal passport (a Russian citizen’s primary identification document - TASS) within 90 days after the person’s civil registry records are updated to reflect such changes.
Meanwhile, the State Duma also passed a resolution recommending that the Russian government formally classify disorders pertaining to sexual preference, including transsexuality, transvestism and pedophilia, as diseases.
The bill would also amend the Russian Family Code to allow any person to legally file for divorce if their spouse changes gender in their civil registry records. In addition, the new Family Code rules under the bill stipulate that individuals who have reassigned their gender would be ineligible to adopt children or be foster parents.
Volodin said earlier that the bill was aimed at preserving traditional family values that are of critical importance to Russia’s citizens.