(LifeSiteNews) — The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls has released a report calling for the end of surrogacy worldwide, a cause LifeSiteNews is joining along with other leading pro-life groups.
“Coercive tactics such as financial incentives, threats of legal action, or the withdrawal of support to both the mother and baby” are often used to pressure surrogate mothers to abort their children, the report states.
“At the international level,” it continues, there needs to be “steps towards eradicating surrogacy in all its forms.”
Reem Alsalem has served as the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls since August 2021. A native of Jordan, she holds degrees in International Relations from the American University in Cairo and Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford.
Alsalem spoke about her report at a meeting organized by the Italian government at the UN last week. Eugenica Rocella, Italy’s Minister for Family, Natality, and Equal Opportunities, addressed the gathering as well. Rocella echoed Alsalem’s call to prohibit surrogacy not “only domestically, but it should also be addressed internationally.”
“The Italian government is convinced that … existing international treaties on the protection of women and children’s rights should be updated to explicitly include surrogacy as a practice of undermining dignity and entailing exploitation,” she declared.
Alsalem’s bombshell 18-page report, which can be read here, is likely to infuriate homosexual couples, who have relied on the unethical practice for years to acquire children, sometimes to the point of hand-selecting surrogate mothers who will ensure their child has certain genetic qualities.
READ: LifeSite launches new campaign to end surrogacy worldwide
Alsalem relied on testimony from more than 75 experts and 120 different “stakeholders” for her study, including doctors, surrogacy groups, and others. She drew attention to the harmful influence homosexual couples have had on the industry in her report.
“Women experience psychological pressure amounting to violence in order to serve as surrogates. They are often pressured into surrogacy by its presentation as an exercise in demonstrating the values of ‘love’ and ‘solidarity’ – particularly in relation to homosexual couples,” Alsalem’s report states. It also notes that surrogacy “reinforces patriarchal norms by commodifying and objectifying women’s bodies and exposing surrogate mothers and children to serious human rights violations.”
Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom International issued a press release praising Alsalem’s efforts.
“Surrogacy rests on a system of violence that dehumanizes women and children alike. States need to develop a coordinated international response to end the grave human rights violations inherent in this practice,” Giorgio Mazzoli, director of UN advocacy at ADF International, said. “We commend the Special Rapporteur for exposing the harms of this exploitative industry and urge governments around the world to united in ending surrogacy in all its forms at all levels, including through the adoption of a UN treaty banning the practice globally.”
Alsalem’s report recalled that while the global surrogacy industry has grown from an estimated $14.4 billion in 2023 to a projected $96.6 billion in 2033, surrogate mothers, who often come from low-income backgrounds, frequently receive “only a small fraction of the overall compensation, with the majority of the payment going to intermediaries.”
This week LifeSite launched a new campaign to join with rights groups, the Vatican, and pro-life organizations to demand a global ban on surrogacy. While India, Vietnam, Italy, and other countries have barred the practice, the U.S. is considered the world’s leader in international surrogacy.
Currently, surrogacy is permitted in all but one state – Louisiana – and there are no federal laws regulating it, despite baby trafficking cases under the cover of commercial surrogacy being investigated by the FBI. Indeed, for 30 years, the U.S. has been the go-to destination for LGBT parents – whether single men or homosexual couples – to buy babies.
LGBT surrogacy was pioneered in the U.S. in 1995 and has resulted in the growth of the practice in the UK, Canada, Australia and other Western nations.
