Russia has finalized a ban on the adoption of children to countries that allow gender-reassignment procedures. According to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, people from countries that allow gender changes through medical procedures – including surgery and puberty blockers – or simply through changes to identity documents without any medical intervention, will no longer be able to adopt Russian children.
The decree added the changes to the country’s Family Code and came into effect on the date of its publication.
The legislation has been in the making for over two years. In August 2022, lawmakers proposed banning adoptions to all ‘unfriendly countries’ which placed sanctions on Russia in connection with the Ukraine conflict. Putin objected to the proposal, arguing that the way the bill was drafted, it would infringe on the rights of Ukrainians living in Russia.
In mid-2023, Russia imposed severe restrictions on gender reassignment procedures. The legislation, which sought to tighten the regulation of what lawmakers called the “transgender industry,” prohibited legal sex changes and medical interventions associated with transitioning except for serious medical cases, such as birth abnormalities. Soon after the law was passed, lawmakers proposed the prevention of international adoptions by people from countries that allow gender changes.
Earlier this month, the ban was approved by the State Duma, receiving overwhelming support. Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said at the time that the ban was aimed at protecting Russian children from potential dangers such as “possible gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries.”
Volodin described Western policies towards children as “destructive,” noting that some European countries permit sex changes for teenagers, while others have no age restrictions for legal gender reassignment.
Russia banned same-sex couples from adopting children in 2013. Under the ‘Dima Yakovlev Law’ passed that year, the country also prohibited adoptions by US nationals, after a Russian orphan adopted by a Virginia couple was left in a car for nine hours and died of a heat stroke.
Russia also has a ban on distributing LGBT-related content, and the “international LGBT public movement” has been outlawed in the country since 2022.