Thread by @WombsNotForRent

We are a grassroots, single-issue, campaign group focussed on #surrogacyreform but with 2m refugees, more fleeing, others trapped, unable or unwilling to leave their homeland #Ukraine it’s impossible to remain focused on #uksurrogacy

With media outlets, politicians and agencies focusing on the commissioning parents, some journalists like @thedalstonyears see #internationalsurrogacy for what it is – the peak of entitlement, never more clear than during times of conflict.
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…

@thedalstonyears “The Irish Independent, for example, reported on a County Kerry couple who had brought their son back from Ukraine without making any reference to their surrogate, presumably left postpartum in a war zone…

@thedalstonyears Sometimes, the couples appear indifferent to the plight of the women left behind: one American parent recently wrote a 1,257-word Instagram post about getting her newborn out of Ukraine…

@thedalstonyears ...in which she thanked her gym for keeping her “fit enough” to make the journey and the travel agent who had arranged her hotel, but did not make any reference to the woman who had carried her baby.”#internationalsurrogacy

@thedalstonyears Today we wrote to the UN Special Rapporteur of the High Commissioner for Human Rights about the exploitation of #surrogatemother and the human trafficking of newborn babies facilitated by international commercial #surrogacy.

@thedalstonyears In it we referenced the estimated 800 ‘pregnancies’=pregnant women in #Ukraine and the extreme circumstances that draw women into #surrogacy as explained here by @ariana_erbon
4w.pub/ukrainian-womb…

@thedalstonyears @ariana_erbon We also referenced a recent interview with Canadian commissioning parents by @AlisonMotluk and how the lines of body autonomy and ownership, quickly become blurred. #surrogacy

@thedalstonyears @ariana_erbon @AlisonMotluk In 2018, UN Special Rapporteur Maud de Boer-Buquicchio stated "Children are not goods or services that the state can guarantee or provide. They are human beings with rights…Commercial surrogacy, as currently practised in some countries, usually amounts to the sale of children."

@thedalstonyears @ariana_erbon @AlisonMotluk #sexmatters in life, in law and in war. We will not ignore these women, we are pleased that some journalists aren't either. These women may be giving away more than the life of a baby in exchange for $, they may also be paying for it with their own.#IStandWithUkraine️ #surrogacy