(LifeSiteNews) — Shocking video testimony from former surrogate mothers has been released which reveals the horrific – and heartbreaking – reality of surrogacy.
The France-based International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood (ICASM/CIAMS) staged an event on October 9 at the seat of the French Senate in Paris, in which surrogate mothers told their harrowing stories – initially reported in print only.
Now ICASM has released video which recorded the story of Christian – an American former surrogate mother who survived a near fatally-complicated IVF pregnancy to be told she was suffering from “toxic empathy” for wanting to keep the baby she had birthed.
During the event, titled “Surrogacy: Hear The Voices Of Those On The Frontline,” the audience heard of the brutal reality behind the international baby trade, with the four women speaking on their experiences in the U.S., UK, France and Argentina.
Christian’s ordeal continued when she discovered she had been lied to – as the baby she had carried was sold on to a buyer in the UK. Her heart-rending speech shows a woman devastated by a lucrative business “in which the so-called ‘intended parents’ take centre stage,” as ICASM said in its introduction to her story, adding that, “The women who give birth to the children are either silenced or have their stories controlled to fit the narrative demanded by the market.”
Danger of death
Christian was “given shots” to assist in the implantation of the fertilized embryo into her womb. She was “not informed of the risk” involved by the “well known California surrogacy agency,” she explained, which eventually included fears she would “bleed to death” due to the “subchronic hemorrhaging” she suffered as a result of the IVF-related injections.
Christian said she had to receive “weekly blood transfusions for the last two months” of the pregnancy.
The contract was a lie
So why did she do it? She was told the commissioning couple was “financially stable – and had an established career and home.”
“I thought that they were good people looking to finish a family,” she said.
Christian was also told another woman was to be a surrogate for the same couple – but the embryos implanted in her did not survive.
Motivated by this information, Christian carried a baby she grew to love but who was taken from her whilst she was “coming off of morphine” and “losing consciousness.”
“Everyone got to say goodbye to him except me,” she recounted.
Christian said she held the baby boy once. Then she discovered that the contract she had signed was fraudulent.
Sold on to strangers abroad
The so-called “commissioning father” appeared after the boy’s birth and began arguing with hospital staff over the boy’s name.
“The name in the contract was different from the name they wanted on the hospital birth record,” she testified.
This is because the man who came to collect the baby did not intend to act as his father – but simply to pass him on to an anonymous buyer overseas.
Christian was powerless as she witnessed the baby she had carried, birthed and grown to love was trafficked to the United Kingdom by a man who was supposed to act as the baby’s father. In fact, he had referred to the baby as a “project” – and his wife was not only not infertile, but was pregnant with a baby of their own at the time.
“I was lied to from the beginning,” said Christian. “The woman who was supposed to be the commissioning mother was actually pregnant at the same time as I was.”
Christian says the agency hid this woman’s pregnancy from her, and that the “intended parents” never intended to keep the baby at all. “They were hired,” she said.
Christian explains how this awful tale unraveled the lies she had been told: “Around the time of the baby’s first birthday, they sent him to the UK with a nanny and declared they did not want him anymore.”
Christian, who was told by a U.S. court she had no legal right to custody, said the man in the UK was the baby’s genetic father.
“I saw they had a contract with him also” – during a “four-year custody battle” which Christian undertook in the UK courts.
“I wrote to the presiding judge, begging him to see my point of view” she explained. “I wanted to raise the child with my husband in America.”
Yet the court ruled in favor of the genetic father in the UK – who had described the boy as “a project.”
Christian says that “no one was on my side” – and that the agency tried to have her sign a gagging order, “but I refused.”
Why would Christian agree to a contract which pressed such measures on her? Her experience suggests a subtly manipulative approach to present the transaction as one of giving the gift of life to a family in need.
“I thought it would be beautiful to make someone else’s dream come true,” Christian concludes, her voice breaking with emotion.
“But it turned into a nightmare for me and my family”.
At the end of her moving speech, Christian said her parental rights had been removed, along with the baby she loved. Holding up three photographs, she fought back tears to say, “I have pictures of three children and none of my fourth because I’m not allowed to have a picture of my son.”
Breaking the silence
Voices such as Christian’s are never heard in the soft-focus marketing material of the global surrogacy trade, which presents this business as a charitable and “altruistic” pathway to parenthood to those otherwise denied a family.
Despite efforts to erase the reality of surrogate motherhood, “some surrogate mothers find the strength to speak out and break the silence surrounding the abuse they have suffered,” as ICASM noted.
The tragedy of Christian’s experience as a surrogate reveals the awful truth about a business model which reduces women and babies to hire purchase agreements and consumer products. The mounting evidence shows that the true face of surrogacy reveals an evil so profound it has united Christians and feminists against it.
As a worldwide consensus grows to stop surrogacy now, how long can our political leadership continue to see no evil?
