Earlier this month the Italian Embassy to the Holy See hosted a conference on the practice of surrogacy, calling for a “total abolition” of the practice, a position shared by a surprising number of secular feminist groups.According to EWTN News, the January 13 event entitled, “A Common Front for Human Dignity: Preventing the Commodification of Women and Children in Surrogarcy, was aimed at raising awareness of the ethical, legal, and social implications of the practice of gestational surrogacy.
Gestational surrogacy is when the surrogate is not genetically related to the baby. In the U.S., approximately 2,000-3,000 babies are born via surrogate each year. Globally, the number climbs to 20,000-30,000. This has created an international surrogacy market, which includes clinics, services, and reproductive technology infrastructure, of about $22.4 billion in 2024. That number is expected to exceed $27.9 billion in 2026.
During the conference, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations of the Holy See, called the practice of surrogacy a “new form of colonialism” that places parents’ rights over those of children. He emphasized how it “exploits bodies and takes meaning out of relationships,” by reducing the person to a mere product. He urged a united front to stop this “commodification of women and children.”
Although Hollywood stars such as Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen, and Sarah Jessica Parker have glamorized the process, the dark side of surrogacy is well documented.
For example, the typical recruit for a surrogate is often a woman who is poor or in debt who is often not told about the medical risks and is paid far lower than advertised. In some countries, the woman is forced to sign contracts written in languages she doesn’t understand. She won’t find out until later that once she signs the contract, she no longer has control over her medical decisions. The contracts control her diet, sexual activity, travel, even dictate mandatory C-sections or forced continuation or termination of a pregnancy.
The babies also suffer from this inhumane practice. They are often left abandoned or institutionalized if they are born with disabilities, are part of an unwanted multiple pregnancy, or if the parents divorce, die, or decide to withdraw from the contract. This has resulted in baby trafficking and criminal networks where brokers sell infants.
Even more untenable is the predicament of babies born via international surrogacy in instances where it is legal in the country of birth but not in in the parents’ home country, or when one of both parents is rejected legally. This leaves the child with no recognized legal parents, no citizenship, no passport, and no country willing to accept responsibility for them. These babies are often left in hospitals and orphanages and live outside all legal protection frameworks, sometimes for years.
This is what happens when human reproduction is stripped of its ethical moorings and persons are reduced to mere “objects of transaction.”
“It’s the sale of a child, handed over to the buyers by virtue of a contract that places the interests of the adults at the center, and not those of the children,” Archbishop Gallagher said, adding that it reduces women’s bodies to a “mere reproductive instrument” which affects the social conception of motherhood and human dignity.
Surprisingly, many secular feminists and organizations reject surrogacy for many of the same reasons, only from entirely different moral lenses.
For example, the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, signed by feminist groups worldwide, states that “Surrogacy exploits women’s reproductive capacities and treats children as commodities to be bought and sold.”
In various amicus briefs and public policy statements, the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) clearly opposes surrogacy legislation. “Surrogacy contracts require women to surrender control over their bodies, their pregnancies, and their children, in exchange for money.”
The Swedish writer Kajsa Ekis Ekman, who identifies as a radical feminist, is the author of Being and Being Bought, which of is one of the most cited feminist critiques of surrogacy and prostitution. “If you can sell a woman’s womb, there is no reason you cannot sell any other part of her,”she writes.
But the feminist's reasons for the condemnation of surrogacy are very different from those of the Catholic.
For example, the materialist view of the radical feminist sees the female body as a material reality, or as their property. The Catholic sees the body as integral to the human person.
The feminist believes pregnancy cannot be reduced to a “service” whereas Catholics do not believe it can be separated from the dignity of marriage and motherhood.
The feminist believes surrogacy alienates women from their own reproductive labor whereas the Catholic believes the body must never be treated as an instrument.
In short, the secular feminist sees surrogacy as wrong because it involves the material exploitation of women. The Catholic sees the practice as wrong because it involves personal (ontological) exploitation.
It is truly rare to find an issue behind which women can unite, in spite of their differences, to bring about an end to the evil of surrogacy.
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