Russia Bans Foreigners From Using Russian Surrogate Materns.

Russia will approve legislation banning foreigners from using Russian women as surrogate mothers, announced the Russian State Duma’s top lawmaker Sunday. This announcement was made on Mother’s Day.

Vyacheslav Voodin, Russia’s speaker, stated via Telegram, that the law aims protect children, Reuters reported.

Volodin via the messaging app stated that it was essential to do everything possible to safeguard children. He also suggested that foreigners should be prohibited from using the surrogacy program. “We will make that decision at the beginning December.”

Volodin pointed out that 45,000 Russian surrogate mothers have taken over 45,000 Russian babies in the last few years.

The speaker of State Duma stated, “Child Trafficking is Not Acceptable.”

The bill is currently at its third and last reading. If it is passed, it will go to Russia’s Federation Council. This upper house of parliament will review it before Russian President Vladimir Putin signs it into legislation.

The legislation was approved by the Russian parliament in its first reading on May 5.

Vasily Piskaryov is a Russian lawmaker who was allied to Putin’s ruling party, United Russia. He said that the bill was necessary to protect surrogacy children from harm.

Piskaryov also proposed that surrogacy babies be automatically granted Russian citizenship “so they can follow their fate.”

The Economist reported last January that Russian legislators proposed the bill in response to the death of a Filipino surrogate baby boy.

The baby, who was being kept in a rented apartment outside Moscow, died after undergoing a brain operation.

Russian authorities called the scene a “trafficking rings” as three more babies were found in the home, including twins that allegedly belonged a Philippine legislator.

The report also stated that Russian paid surrogacy costs less than those in the United States at $20,000

Russia sentenced a surrogate mother to its first ever criminal conviction on human trafficking grounds in May.

Russian state-run media outlet TASS reported that Tamara Yandieva was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Krasnoyarsk, a Siberian city.

The state prosecutor stated that Yandieva traveled to Cambodia with her commissioning parents, and underwent an embryo-transfer procedure.