Gestational surrogacy: mapping reformist and abolitionist debates in Italy, Mexico and the United States
Gestational surrogacy (GS) involves women hosting embryos made from egg and sperm taken from the intended parents or from donors. GS is an attractive option for heterosexual couples, where the woman medically cannot carry out a pregnancy, and homosexual couples. It is estimated that 20 000 such babies are born annually. Feminist interest in GS has been growing as it poses challenging questions such as: does it help or hinder women’s emancipation? “Within women’s reproductive politics, surrogacy ignites the most debate and divisions,” says Daniela Bandelli, fellow of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions supported WoMoGeS project, conducted at LUMSA university in Rome, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. Taking three country-based case studies, Bandelli identified key conceptual frames within prevailing feminist discourses. She found that for abolitionists they were ‘reproductive exploitation’ and the ‘commodification of women and children’, while for reformists principally ‘reproductive rights’, ‘women's autonomy’ and ‘protection of women and children’. “The key finding was the different prevalence of the abolitionist or reformist approach within national women’s movements and their organisation around the issue,” explains Bandelli.
Cross-country comparisons
WoMoGeS’s three case studies were based in countries – Italy, Mexico and the United States – with differences in women’s social conditions, social inequality, surrogacy legislation and social acceptance of surrogacy. For each case study, Bandelli investigated prominent media, analysing 92 newspaper articles: 44 from the Texan-American press, 28 from Mexico and 20 from Italy. Bandelli also conducted 50 in-depth interviews with feminists, activists, scholars and journalists, amongst others. Bandelli found that in the United States the dominant regulatory approach among feminists seeks to improve GS ethics and safety with discourse focusing on contracts, women’s health and medical procedures. “Despite being home to the ‘Stop Surrogacy Now’ campaign, surrogacy remains marginal in the feminist US public debate,” according to Bandelli. For Mexican feminists, GS is an emerging concern with some advocating regulation and others a ban in order to avoid the exploitation of poverty. However, demands for abolition are contested by a lack of confidence in its enforceability by the state. “While those for regulation have more influence on policymakers, the abolitionists are gaining ground,” notes Bandelli. In Italy, Bandelli found that while feminist opposition to GS is visible and organised, with events and coalitions, there is no established advocacy for surrogacy legalisation within the women’s movement. “Regulatory demand comes especially from same-sex parents and civil rights organisations with the debate focusing on birth registration and parental rights over babies born abroad,” says Bandelli. “Feminist arguments against surrogacy pivot around the principle of ‘mater semper certa’ – meaning that the mother of the child is conclusively established, from the moment of birth, by the mother's role in the birth –along with motherhood as a marker of feminine identity.” Bandelli also found that while abolitionists had two main international initiatives (the Stop Surrogacy Now campaign and the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood), reformists had nothing comparable.
Towards a more child-centred approach
Bandelli did find consensus on the need for more scientific research, quantitative data on surrogacy births, as well as follow-up studies on the well-being of women after surrogacy and of children born this way. “In policymaking the child’s rights are subordinated to the freedom of the adult to self-determine. I suggest a shift to a more child-centric discourse,” adds Bandelli. Bandelli’s recent book queries current feminist responses, such as their appropriateness in various future scenarios which could see the availability of viable artificial wombs, and questions stances that suggest women involved in surrogacy are complicit in patriarchal violence against women.
Keywords
WoMoGeS, gestational surrogacy, feminist, abolitionist, reformist, reproductive rights, regulatory, birth
