The head of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, at a meeting of the State Duma, said that a complete ban on the trans-transition could increase the number of suicides. Murashko supported the inadmissibility of a sex change only at the request of the patient and spoke in favor of tightening the requirements for operations and hormone therapy, but did not speak for a complete ban on the transition.
“Indeed, a number of points began to be clarified and factors that are near-scientific began to be swept aside. This work will be continued by the second reading,” Murashko said.
In response, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin asked him not to propose amendments to this law. Earlier, on June 14, the bill was adopted in the first reading.
“We would like the Ministry of Health to issue no amendments by the second reading, arguing that this is due to concern for people. You need to take care, if you want, by banning all this fornication, ”said Volodin.
He also rebuked doctors who think not about "serving the community" but about making money.
Deputy Pyotr Tolstoy, who presented the bill at a meeting of the State Duma, said that the deputies received a “very emotional conclusion from the Ministry of Health”:
“If the bill is passed, a stalemate will arise in which people whose gender is officially recognized by medical workers as not corresponding to the sex indicated in the passport will not be able, poor, to bring their passport data into line with the reality that has developed in their head, and this may cause ethical, medical and social problems and also lead to – what do you think – to an increase in suicides in the country. Colleagues, well, excuse me, such an approach – if we agree with it, with the position of the Ministry of Health – means that then this law should not be adopted.
After that, Tolstoy suggested that in the future, the control of drugs for medical abortions and the prohibition of abortions in "commercial clinics that are done in violation of the law for the sake of profit" be discussed.
The bill completely bans "sex reassignment" through surgery and passport changes; the exception was congenital anomalies in children. After the President's signature, the amendments will be made to the laws "On Health Protection" and "On Civil Status Acts." The document also prohibits registry offices from making changes to documents based on medical certificates for gender reassignment. This means that trans persons will not be able to change the "sex" column in their passport.
Permission for the treatment of congenital physiological anomalies of sex formation in children will need to be obtained from medical commissions of state institutions. The list of institutions will be approved by the Russian government.
Experts working with LGBTQ+ people explained to The Insider that the State Duma uses the incorrect and transphobic term “gender reassignment” and also wants to adopt the toughest version of the bill, which would ban absolutely everything for transgender people: from changing documents to surgical procedures. As a result, this will lead to the emergence of an underground surgical market and an increase in cases of depression.
