Russia will stop letting other countries use its surrogate mothers

Russia will soon pass a law prohibiting foreigners from utilizing Russian surrogate moms, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, announced on Mother’s Day, November 27.

In Russia, paid surrogacy is allowed, but religious groups have denounced the practice for commercializing childbirth.

Volodin stated on the Telegram chat app, “Everything must be done to protect children by barring foreigners from using the surrogacy service.” This decision will be made at the beginning of December.

In the past few years, around 45,000 infants born to surrogate mothers have been taken abroad. He continued, “Child trafficking is unacceptable.”

In May, the first reading of the measure was nearly overwhelmingly approved by the Russian legislature. If the bill passes the third and final reading, it will be evaluated by the upper chamber of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin.

Since invading its neighbor in February, the Ukrainian government claims that Russia has forcefully deported more than 12,000 Ukrainian children, while 440 have died in the conflict and hundreds remain missing.

Russia denies forcible deportations, claiming that the flow of Ukrainians into Russia was to protect civilians from Ukrainian troops.

Putin met with a carefully selected group of mothers of Russian servicemen deployed to Ukraine on Friday, reminding them that their sons’ deaths were not in vain.