The $130 Billion Baby Trade: UK Parliament Confronts Surrogacy as Modern Slavery

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]I'm here in Westminster with Lexi Ellingsworth of Stop Surrogacy Now UK.

[00:00:05]We've just come out of a parliamentary round table on the issue of surrogacy.

[00:00:10]Try and get the British political class to recognize the hire of women to produce children to sail is a crime. It is my honor to be able to speak to you one of the leading campaigners to criminalize surrogacy in the United Kingdom. Now today we've come from a round table which was a discussion a preliminary discussion of the crime of surrogacy and how we want to get it abolished in Britain and Lexi Ellingsworth of stopped surrogacy now UK was the chair of this meeting now please tell us what happened and what you think this means for the future of surrogacy in the United Kingdom.

[00:00:44]So we had a really successful meeting with MPs and journalists today uh at the House of Parliament and uh we were able to speak to people about what surrogacy truly is uh the realities of surrogacy and uh actually one of the things that was mentioned was that there was a dark truth or a dark heart to it and we want to explain to people we want people to understand um that are you know it's an issue of exploitation the commodification of children and we really are talking about monetonization of women's bodies And we see here in the UK that uh British citizens go abroad uh to buy babies under commercial contracts um frequently from countries like Ukraine uh America etc. Mexico, Nigeria and we wanted to explain that there are some risks involved both medical and the concerns that we have around the ethical process as in there are no ethics to this. It's simply not ethical to have a baby taken from their mother at birth and for that baby to be moved abroad and then uh have a parental rights cured under a parental order here in the UK.

[00:01:49]In the UK we have uh what is called an altruistic or reasonable expenses only uh policy. It's the law here. But we also have commercial surrogacy by the back door because we British people go abroad to these countries. So I was explaining some of what the agencies do, some of what the clinics do and what we see with surrogate mothers who speak to us and share their experiences with us.

[00:02:12]>> So what do you think this means for the future of surrogacy in the United Kingdom? Will the British public come to recognize? Will the legislature come to recognize that the hire of women to produce children for sale is a crime?

[00:02:24]>> I really hope so. Um we had some MPs in the room and we want to keep on speaking to them and have further conversations.

[00:02:31]It's quite important that people are educated about the realities of surrogacy. So I think that was definitely part of what was taking place in the room today. What we would like to see is for international surrogacy to be uh banned completely and for ultimately there to be a global ban on surrogacy.

[00:02:45]We uh support the words of Ree Als. She definitely is very clear about altruistic surrogacy and uh commercial surrogacy and that there's no meaningful distinction between those two different models and we feel the same way. So when we have expenses they are huge amounts of money that get paid almost like a salary and uh certainly under commercial surrogacy we are looking at the sale and purchase of of babies. So we would like to see some um some real kind of understanding uh and apply some critical thinking to what is happening and one of the things I talked about was the language of surrogacy and how actually that disguises the reality of what's happening. So for example, we'll talk about um intended parents is what the industry says and I would use the words commissioned parents. Um for example, the word surrogate. Um I never use that word. I always say surrogate mothers because the word mother actually has a legal meaning as well as a social meaning here in the UK. And then there's lots of other language that sort of takes place like traveling surrogate or mobile surrogate. And these ultimately are trafficked women. They are moved across borders for the purposes of surrogacy to be implanted with an embryo and also usually returned to that to that country to then give birth so that that they are giving birth under that model and um it possible to have pre-birth orders and for commissioning parents to be named on birth certificates. So we are talking about the trade of children for parental rights to be secured under a contract and we don't think that uh human life should be should be a subject of a of a contract and that uh actually human babies have human rights.

[00:04:15]>> Lifeight view's campaign to end surrogacy have it recognized as a universal cry as the government of Italy have already pronounced proceeds over international borders. Our campaign is touching the international public opinion in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom. We will win this battle because everyone who realizes the obscenity of the hire of women to produce babies for sale recognizes that this is a crime and that the market principle has gone too far when it violates the basic dignity of human life. This is the beginning of the aot of the surrogacy industry.