France: feminists and lesbians call for the abolishment of “surrogate motherhood” at the Assemblée Nationale

Women, feminists, philosophers, researchers in various disciplines as well as lesbians, the latter in particular, call for the universal abolition of GPA, corresponding to the practice of surrogate motherhood. They are fighting against the commodification of women’s bodies, paid and exploited to give birth to children that will be “handed over to their customers.” They have jointly promoted a Conference (Les Assises) that will be held on February 2 in the Salle Victor Hugo of the Assemblée Nationale in Paris, under the presidency of Laurence Dumont. The purpose of the initiative is to bring together policymakers, feminist associations and organizations for the defence of human rights throughout Europe in order to highlight and oppose “a social practice that violates the fundamental rights of the human person.”

Marie Jauffret is the president of CoRP, one of the associations that promote the Assises alongside with the “Collectif National pour les Droits des Femmes” and the “Coordination Lesbienne en France”. “We reject –Jauffret said – the practice of surrogate motherhood, namely, the fact of making available to someone else the organs and the life of a woman for nine months”, while at the same time” strip her completely of her motherhood.” The fact of placing birth and the child himself at the centre of a system of production and exchange inevitably infringes human rights. We believe that laws represent the furrow whereby humanity is defined. Only laws can ensure justice, peace, freedom, equality, and the dignity of human beings.

“Today these rights are being questioned by neo-liberalism and by the development of biotechnologies that risk reducing people at the level of biological matter or products.”

Commodification of pregnancy, alienation of the people involved, often even exploitation. Far from being an individual act – remarked the associations – this social practice is carried out by companies that deal with human reproduction within an organized system of production, which includes clinics, doctors, lawyers, agencies etc. The French associations are worried precisely about such “deviations”. “However, I wouldn’t describe the trafficking of mothers as a mere ‘deviation’”, pointed out Marie Jauffret. “It were as if slavery were described as a ‘deviation.’”

“The practice in itself is contrary to the dignity of women whose body, as well as sexual and reproductive services, are not up for loan as such practice constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights. And it also violates the dignity of children who are not up for sale or donation.”

Such practice is a result of a deeply unequal global market at all levels, namely: “sexist exploitation, economic exploitation and North-South exploitation.”

The first part of the Paris conference will draw a balance of the situation at international level. Panel speakers include, inter alia, Sheela Saravanan, who wrote several articles on the infanticide of girls, violence against women and the business of surrogate motherhood in India. In the second part of the meeting participants will address the possibilities of concrete action in view of the universal abolition of the practice of GPA. At the end of the Assises, associations will present a “Charter” that can be signed online:

“We Call on France and other European countries to respect the international conventions for the protection of human rights  that they have ratified and to oppose firmly any form of legalization of surrogate motherhood at a national or international level.”

Furthermore, in the name of the equal dignity of all human beings, we also call on them to act firmly to abolish the practise of surrogacy at an international level, in particular by promoting the elaboration, adoption and effective implementation of an international convention for the abolition of surrogate motherhood.”