Christina Weis | BioNews | March 15, 2021
This commentary addresses the recent bill amendment, proposed by the Russian State Duma, which would restrict surrogacy to heterosexual married couples with Russian residency. Current law allows heterosexual unmarried couples and single mothers, regardless of residency status, to pursue commercial surrogacy. A co-author of the bill said the restrictive amendment is motivated by last year’s COVID-19 lockdowns and travel bans, which prevented many foreign clients from collecting their surrogacy-born newborns. The Moscow Times also speculates that allowing single men and women to hire surrogates goes against Russian family values.