Today, on 10 October 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Al Salem, presented a report to the UN General Assembly in which she calls for all UN member states to abolish the practice of surrogacy.
Along with Stop Surrogacy Now UK, the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood, the Casablanca Declaration for the Abolition of Surrogacy and hundreds of other organisations campaigning for the rights of women and children, we submitted evidence to the consultation which underpinned UNSRVAW’s report, and are delighted to see it formally presented at the UN today.
We were quoted in the Daily Mail in August welcoming the publication of the report, which includes the following in its recommendations:
“Surrogacy arrangements can amount to or resemble slavery, as they place surrogate mothers in a position in which any or all of the attributes of the right of ownership are exercised over them. The practice of surrogacy is characterized by exploitation and violence against women and children, including girls. It reinforces patriarchal norms by commodifying and objectifying women’s bodies and exposing surrogate mothers and children to serious human rights violations. Considering the above, the Special Rapporteur recommends that Member States and other relevant stakeholders:
(a) At the international level, take steps towards eradicating surrogacy in all its forms.
(b) Work towards adopting an international legally binding instrument prohibiting all forms of surrogacy;
(c) Adopt a legal and policy framework for surrogacy that is modelled on the Nordic model for prostitution and includes pillars for penalizing buyers, clinics and agencies to end the demand for surrogacy; decriminalizing surrogate mothers; providing exit support strategies for surrogate mothers. Consequently, the advertising of surrogacy services and agencies must be prohibited.”
For those who are coming to the issue of surrogacy anew, we object to surrogacy on the grounds it removes babies from their mothers at birth, exploits women’s poverty, is profoundly unethical and makes a tradeable commodity of children and women’s reproductive abilities.
We would draw your attention to the following:
- Domestic surrogacy cases in British courts are now dwarfed by parental order applications made for babies born abroad in commercial surrogacy arrangements which would not be legal if undertaken here. We are very concerned that commercial surrogacy is being sanctioned by our courts and have raised these concerns with the Government. Commercial surrogacy sees women enter legally enforceable contracts, controlling their behaviour, birth, and drugs they must take etc for the duration of the pregnancy, and often beyond. Overwhelmingly women who undertake the practice are poor women in developing countries (Ukraine, Georgia, Mexico, Colombia) or in the US (the most popular international destination for British residents) surrogate mothers are usually from working class backgrounds without college degrees, who often undertake the pregnancies to provide for their children’s future or contribute to household income. We’re very concerned at the imbalance between the wealthy who pursue surrogacy and the financial situation of women who become surrogate mothers, at home and abroad.
- In the UK, which is often described as having an ‘altruistic’ model, the “expenses” surrogate mothers often receive across a pregnancy now average around £15,000 – £20,000 per pregnancy, paid monthly like a salary, thus incentivising lower income women to undertake this from a point of financial need. These “expenses” are not checked closely by judges in Parental Order applications and one British surrogacy agency even advises women to ask for as much as £35,000 per pregnancy. Many pro surrogacy campaigners like to portray the situation as between friends and family, where everyone stays in touch and remains friends: this is very often not the case, indeed we have had reports from surrogate mothers of relationships breaking down shortly after birth; the reality here is very different from that which is often portrayed in the media. The majority of surrogacy cases in the UK are now facilitated by agencies between people who were previously unknown to one another. And even in the friends and family model, we know of cases of regret, pressure and coercion.
- Last year a major new study of 860,000 births undertaken in Canada (which has a very similar surrogacy model to the UK) found surrogate pregnancies to be 3x higher risk for severe pregnancy complications including sepsis, pre eclampsia and postpartum haemorrhage. Another study published in July 2025 showed surrogate mothers were at higher risk for developing mental health problems after birth, even in cases where they had not previously experienced mental ill health. The studies can be seen here: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M24-0417 and here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2836835
- Too often the perspective of the child is disregarded in surrogacy, with the focus only on those who wish to have a child. Babies bond in utero with their mothers (regardless of egg used in the pregnancy) and they want only her at birth. Removing a child from their mother in the delivery suite, as happens here in the UK and abroad, often with no ongoing contact, is not only not in the child’s best interests, but it also goes against all known NHS guidance and best practice on the importance of bonding and the fourth trimester for mothers and babies.
Again, we reiterate our support for the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and her report recommendations: we hope the British Government moves to ban surrogacy for all in the UK as soon as possible.
