On July 23rd, 2024, in collaboration with our 50 affiliated organizations across 15 countries, we submitted a joint letter to the UNFPA expressing our firm opposition to their definition of surrogate motherhood.
Dear Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director
Dear UNFPA Executive Board Members,
We are writing to express our concerns about the portrayal of surrogacy in UNFPA’s May 2024 report, “Advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the private sector: The case for action and accountability in the workplace.”
The report presents surrogacy as a family-building option, despite its violation of women’s and children’s human rights and its prohibition in many countries. Furthermore, the report encourages employers to financially support employee surrogacy arrangements, which could, de facto, finance the exploitation of women and children.
We are also troubled by the report’s glossary. It defines surrogacy as a form of “comprehensive family planning” and includes “the right to have a child” under the term “reproductive justice.” This contradicts the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which emphasizes the child’s right to their parents, not the opposite.
This is not the first time UNFPA endorses surrogacy without a legal basis. The 2021 report, “My Body is My Own,” featured a section on “The Job of a Surrogate” based solely on one personal testimony. Additionally, it promoted sex work under the guise of bodily autonomy, a rationale we find flawed. We previously submitted a letter voicing these concerns but received no response.
We urge you to address our questions:
- Does the inclusion of surrogacy in these reports reflect UNFPA’s official position on legalization of surrogacy? If so, when and how was this position established?
- What legal framework supports the concept of a “right to have a child” and the definition of surrogacy as “comprehensive family planning”?
- How does UNFPA propose to safeguard the rights of women and children from the surrogacy industry?
Incompatibility with Human Rights
We believe surrogacy aligns with the UN’s definition of human trafficking[1]. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) requires states to combat the exploitation (Article 6) and trafficking of women. Similarly, the Convention on the Rights of the Child obligates countries to prevent child abduction, sale, and trafficking (Article 35). Additionally, the Optional Protocol to this Convention prohibits the sale of children (Article 2.a).
Surrogacy further contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child in several ways:
- Article 7: Children have the right to know their parents and receive custody.
- Article 9: Children should not be separated from their parents.
The practice of surrogacy also undermines women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, including the right to abortion. By relinquishing control over their bodies for nine months and facing physical, medical, and psychological risks to fulfill another’s desire for parenthood, surrogate mothers are denied their dignity[2] and humanity. Furthermore, the UN Declaration on Medical Ethics emphasizes that technological advances in medical science must be ethically sound and take place with respect for human dignity, freedoms, and rights.
Contradiction with UNFPA’s Mission
UNFPA’s mission aims for every pregnancy to be desired and every childbirth to be safe. This mission aligns with achieving “zero preventable maternal deaths” by 2030, one of your three transformative results. However, surrogacy inherently contradicts this goal. Surrogate mothers endure high-risk pregnancies with a significantly higher rate of complications than natural pregnancies, jeopardizing their health and potentially their lives.
The International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood (ICASM) together with its fifty affiliated organisations[3] strongly opposes UNFPA’s normalization and promotion of surrogacy. We, of course, wholeheartedly support UNFPA’s objectives in improving perinatal health outcomes for women and children and are eager to provide clear information on why surrogacy hinders these objectives.
Sincerely,
The International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood (ICASM)
Marie Josèphe Devillers Ana-Luana Stoicea-Deram Berta O. Garcia
Co-presidents of the Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood
[1] United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (Article 3)
[2] UN Declaration of Human Rights (Article 1)
[3] http://abolition-ms.org/en/active-members/