UNFPA report proposes a right to surrogacy
WASHINGTON, D.C. June 14 (C-Fam) A new policy paper from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) suggests that surrogacy (surrogacy) – including commercial surrogacy – can be considered part of "comprehensive family planning" – and potentially a human right.
The document proposes a new definition of "comprehensive family planning": "a holistic approach to family planning and formation. It includes family planning services, a range of contraceptive methods, infertility treatments, adoption, foster care and surrogacy."
Surrogacy is a controversial topic internationally, as it raises concerns about the exploitation of women, especially poor women in developing countries, who are employed as surrogate mothers by individuals and couples in rich countries. Pope Francis has called for a global ban on surrogacy, and the Holy See has organized events at the UN explaining how the practice exploits and threatens women's health and lives and turns children into commodities.
Other AHR technologies also raise related ethical concerns, such as egg and sperm donation and how their use can infringe on children's rights. Specifically, the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that a child has "as far as possible the right to know his or her parents and to be cared for by them."
UNFPA has used the term "comprehensive family planning" in previous publications, including a 2023 framework on family planning in the context of human rights, but the agency has focused on providing services to limit or space births,
without mentioning assisted reproductive technologies.
In this context, UNFPA links the right to family planning to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which refers to "the right (of parents) to decide freely and responsibly about the number, spacing and timing of their children's birth, and the right of access to information, education and the means to achieve it. The ICPD also states that abortion should never be promoted as a method of family planning.
UNFPA's new report, which focuses on the role of the private sector in promoting "sexual and reproductive health and rights," insists that it "does not consider or promote abortion as a method of family planning" and that it "does not fund abortion or perform abortions" and "respects the sovereign right of countries to decide how legal abortion is." Yet, UNFPA has been one of the most aggressive UN agencies in promoting abortion around the world.
The report does not contain any disclaimers regarding surrogacy, the legal status of which varies considerably from country to country, and does not mention any ethical concerns. However, the report mentions surrogacy, alongside adoption and foster care, as a means whose services could be "adapted to different sexes, genders, ... sexual orientations and expressions", among other categories. It also states that "financial support for infertility treatments, surrogacy, adoption, and egg freezing can expand
women's choices and help them thrive in their work."
The glossary also includes the term "reproductive justice," whose three core values are "the right to have a child, the right not to have a child, and the right to raise one or more children in a safe and healthy environment." The mention of the "right to have a child" comes from the context of forced contraception and sterilization campaigns against poor and black women in the United States. Placed next to UNFPA's new definition of "comprehensive family planning," it points to a supposed right to have a child by any means possible – with poor children and women suffering the collateral damage.
The document proposes a new definition of "comprehensive family planning": "a holistic approach to family planning and formation. It includes family planning services, a range of contraceptive methods, infertility treatments, adoption, foster care and surrogacy."
Surrogacy is a controversial topic internationally, as it raises concerns about the exploitation of women, especially poor women in developing countries, who are employed as surrogate mothers by individuals and couples in rich countries. Pope Francis has called for a global ban on surrogacy, and the Holy See has organized events at the UN explaining how the practice exploits and threatens women's health and lives and turns children into commodities.
Other AHR technologies also raise related ethical concerns, such as egg and sperm donation and how their use can infringe on children's rights. Specifically, the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that a child has "as far as possible the right to know his or her parents and to be cared for by them."
UNFPA has used the term "comprehensive family planning" in previous publications, including a 2023 framework on family planning in the context of human rights, but the agency has focused on providing services to limit or space births,
without mentioning assisted reproductive technologies.
In this context, UNFPA links the right to family planning to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which refers to "the right (of parents) to decide freely and responsibly about the number, spacing and timing of their children's birth, and the right of access to information, education and the means to achieve it. The ICPD also states that abortion should never be promoted as a method of family planning.
UNFPA's new report, which focuses on the role of the private sector in promoting "sexual and reproductive health and rights," insists that it "does not consider or promote abortion as a method of family planning" and that it "does not fund abortion or perform abortions" and "respects the sovereign right of countries to decide how legal abortion is." Yet, UNFPA has been one of the most aggressive UN agencies in promoting abortion around the world.
The report does not contain any disclaimers regarding surrogacy, the legal status of which varies considerably from country to country, and does not mention any ethical concerns. However, the report mentions surrogacy, alongside adoption and foster care, as a means whose services could be "adapted to different sexes, genders, ... sexual orientations and expressions", among other categories. It also states that "financial support for infertility treatments, surrogacy, adoption, and egg freezing can expand
women's choices and help them thrive in their work."
The glossary also includes the term "reproductive justice," whose three core values are "the right to have a child, the right not to have a child, and the right to raise one or more children in a safe and healthy environment." The mention of the "right to have a child" comes from the context of forced contraception and sterilization campaigns against poor and black women in the United States. Placed next to UNFPA's new definition of "comprehensive family planning," it points to a supposed right to have a child by any means possible – with poor children and women suffering the collateral damage.
