All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
As with prostitution, surrogacy is often promoted by having the very women exploited by it speak out publicly in favour of it. They insist it is not only a free choice, but one that is empowering.
Women are conditioned to be “nice” and to sacrifice ourselves for others. Yet every pregnancy is a major endeavour that carries risk, and surrogacy can cause complications and additional health risks.
Even in countries where commercial surrogacy is illegal, surrogate mothers are eligible to receive expenses, which can often add up to the level of a relatively low salary. The cash, therefore, is the coercion. The vast majority of women engaged in surrogacy do it out of financial desperation and lack of choice.
And where commercial surrogacy is legal – in California or the state of New York, for example, or countries such as Ukraine, Mexico, India or Thailand – surrogate mothers are often paid significantly less than they were originally offered. And if complications arise during the pregnancy, or a miscarriage occurs, surrogates can be financially penalised.
Australia looks to be moving towards full legalisation of commercial surrogacy.
The surrogacy market is out of control around the world, but in Australia and the UK things are moving particularly fast.
The surrogacy process costs around $65,000 in Australia, but only a fraction of this is ever paid to the surrogate herself. The rest goes to agencies, lawyers and brokers.
Amendments were passed in the Australian Senate (sic), including broader access to Assisted Reproductive Technology and altruistic (unpaid) surrogacy for all people, including same-sex couples, single people, transgender and intersex individuals, and the removal of the necessity for couples and individuals to prove a clinical infertility diagnosis to access ART.
In her report on surrogacy, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, called for surrogacy to be recognised as a system of violence, exploitation and abuse against women, and for a global ban on the practice.
Feminist campaigners in Australia, and those of us elsewhere in the world concerned about the rent-a-womb trade, are convinced that these amendments to the law are a slippery slope for full commercial legal surrogacy. If this is allowed to happen, babies will become nothing more than merchandise.
[Ed: I think the legislation referred to might be the Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Bill 2025 passed in the WA Legislative Council in December 2025 rather than in the Senate].
Thank you for sharing. Great to see some media showing some of the feminist argument against surrogacy