Violence against women and girls: Surrogacy must be abolished - Press Conference | United Nations

Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said, “Surrogacy as a practice, as an industry must be abolished.” Reem Alsalem briefed journalists on her report about the ‘different manifestations of violence against women and girls in the context of surrogacy, focusing on the drivers of the practice and on the human rights implications for the females involved.’ She said, “The consequences of surrogacy are so grave and harmful and result in large scale violations of the human rights of surrogate mothers and their children that surrogacy as a practice as an industry must be abolished.” She continued, “The violence that surrogate mothers and girls are experiencing in surrogate arrangements takes many forms. I speak about economic violence, psychological violence, physical and reproductive and in fact, in many situations, surrogate mothers experience life threatening situations, they are trapped in situations of slavery and are also subjected to practices that can amount to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.” She noted, “Often the concept of consent is weaponized in order to justify the surrogacy industry saying that it is these women and girls that consent fully and voluntarily to engage in surrogacy, and that we have to also respect the bodily autonomy and the decisions of these women and girls. However, as I also say in the report, consent is invalid when it is used to justify exploitation, abuse and violence.” She added, “Not to mention that many of these women are actually not aware of the harm that they're about to experience before entering into surrogacy arrangements, don't even necessarily understand the contracts and the details of it, and there is a wide imbalance and asymmetry of power between these women and the surrogacy agencies and the commissioning parents.” She also said, “The commodification of the reproductive functions of surrogate mothers is also deeply dehumanizing. In fact, even the terminology that we use, describing them as ‘ovens,’ despite describing them as ‘gestators,’ describing them as ‘wombs to rent’, points to this also deep-seated sexism and dehumanization that facilitates the surrogacy industry.” She stated, “There are hardly any background checks on commissioning parents. These background checks typically are typically nonexistent or minimal, because what matters is the buying powers of the commissioning parents.” She reported, “Regulation and legalization have not proven to reduce demand. They have not proven to safeguard surrogate mothers and children against abuse and exploitation. On the contrary, from the little evidence we have of countries which regularize some forms of surrogacy, it actually leads to increased demands. It leads to also an increased commodification and harmful stereotypes about women and girls about their reproductive functions, and therefore it also increases the risks of further abuse and exploitations.” She highlighted, “First of all, we must end the demand for surrogacy. And to end the demand, we must criminalize the purchase of children through surrogacy. So that means commissioning parents. It means also anyone who profits from the surrogacy industry, which is the clinics, which is the intermediaries. And we must also, therefore prohibit advertisements that encourage and groom women and girls to become surrogate mothers or to sell even their eggs.” She stressed, “These women are victims. They should not be criminalized for engaging in surrogacy, they must be treated as victims.”


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