On 7 September 2026 the House of Commons will hold a debate in Westminster Hall on the surrogacy petition launched by the social media influencer Adam Frisby. The petition calls for commissioning parents to surrogate born children to gain parental rights at birth.
We strongly oppose this step and are urging our campaigners to email their MPs without delay to object, and to ask their MPs to speak out against the petition and attend the debate.
Surrogate mothers, whether they use their own eggs in their pregnancies or not, are the mother of their children. Erasing them in law at the moment of birth is grossly misogynistic, makes it virtually impossible for her to change her mind, and treats working class women as though they are incubators for hire. Surrogacy lies to the child that the surrogate mother is not their mother, and sees Government’s around the world colluding in a state-sponsored lie about the child’s origins. This must never happen in the UK.
We support a total ban on surrogacy, but while surrogacy is legal parental orders must remain. Parental orders ensure judges have oversight of every surrogacy arrangement, and CAFCASS social workers inspect the family home and meet with commissioning parents. Many surrogacy arrangements involve a child moving in to a home with at least one unrelated adult; it is completely wrong, and dangerous, to suggest these children deserve even less protection in the law. Contrary to the claims of the pro-surrogacy lobby, applying for a parental order is not time consuming, nor does it represent a ‘long running legal fight’.
The vast majority of surrogate born children in the UK are now born to mothers abroad in commercial surrogacy arrangements which would not be legal if embarked upon here. We must never import a model of surrogacy which more closely resembles foreign commercial surrogacy arrangements. Working class women and children deserve better.
Parental orders must remain. Please email your MP today here.
