Left-wing feminists call for global ban on surrogacy

A coalition of left-wing French intellectuals and politicians has denounced surrogate motherhood and called for a global ban on the practice.

Led by feminist philosopher Sylviane Agacinski, about 300 people – almost all women – met at the National Assembly to review the state of surrogacy around the world and sign a charter against it.

The Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano hailed the initiative in a front-page editorial. “This is the first time the Left dares to speak against the progressive lobby without fear of being linked to groups seen as conservative, such as participants in the ‘Demo for All’,” wrote historian Lucetta Scaraffia (pictured), referring to protests against same-sex marriage that were backed by the French Church.

At last week’s meeting, speakers from around Europe and India, a main destination for commercial surrogacy services, denounced it as an insult to human dignity, a “neocolonial market” and “the little sister of prostitution”.
Surrogacy is illegal in France, but the top administrative court opened a loophole last July by ruling that surrogate children born abroad can be granted citizenship.

Supporters are pressing for legalisation of a non-commercial “ethical surrogacy”, but critics say it could easily be abused.

The organisers of the meeting stressed it was not just a conservative issue, with Agacinski saying: “We have a position that is humanist, feminist and social, and therefore left-wing.”

Among leading participants were three former Cabinet Ministers in Socialist-led French governments and prominent radical ecologist José Bové, one of the few men present.