The war in Ukraine puts the surrogacy business and unborn babies in trouble

In addition to being a country at war, Ukraine is the European center of the surrogacy “industry”. Foreign couples can pick up the baby they rented while in the country for just a month, even just a few weeks now during the war, for prices that start at € 39,900where expectant mothers receive less than half.

According to the director of the pregnancy clinic that EFE visits in kyiv, Igor Petrovichusually pregnant mothers women without economic resources who use the money from the “program” (that’s what they call gestation) to pay for renovations to their homes, take care of their children or just go ahead.

There are many who are not just pregnant with a child; they signed up to have two, three, four …

“The limit depends on age and health status”, says Igor Petrovich, boasting his clinic which, in his own words, manages the “noble work of bringing happiness to couples and life in the world. “. At the clinic about 500 children are born each year, they are all scheduled to live outside Ukraine with foreign partners.

The person who manages the recruitment of Spanish families participating in the program is called Alina, she speaks perfect Spanish and prefers not to say her last name. He has been working at this center for five years and said he is happy to be able to offer families what they have been looking for in their lives.

To pregnant mothers, she says some are divorced, others they were left unemployed and withoutOthers need money to survive or to raise their children. She knows that in other countries the perspective is different but she does not see the ethical problems in the regulation of surrogate mothers promoted by the Ukrainian government.

“It is legal. Most pregnant women come here because they earn and are treated well. Thanks to them, families will have the desired babies. This is better than prostitution”, Alina said directly. Women receive, according to the clinic director, in between 16,000 and 25,000 euros for renting their bellies.

He does not answer if he will answer because in any case he cannot: he does not yet have a child of his own, one of the requirements to participate.

The war, the uncertainty

Ukrainian women with pregnancies for foreigners added to the stress of a war situation the uncertainty of what will happen to their contracts in case, because they are in war zones, they cannot deliver the children after giving birth.

Sergii Antonov is a lawyer and director of a reproductive and medical law center that ensures most contracts are signed in the war. they finished well and the pregnant women were able to deliver the children and therefore received the money.

“However, there are tragic cases as well when surrogate mothers they lost a pregnancy due to stressgave birth to children prematurely, some mothers went to the territory occupied by Russia and they cannot transfer their children to their real parents, ”he admitted.

For months Nadia, a 36-year-old woman living in Kajavka, a town next to Kherson where Russians and Ukrainians live, was afraid to find herself in such a situation. they have been fighting for monthsand under Russian domination.

The pregnant woman flees from the Russian occupier

He spoke to EFE on Friday, May 13, at the reproduction clinic, already in kyiv, and tell hell who lived to get stuck in his village. He got it on the third try.

She is 29 weeks pregnant and not stopping to cry, not because of the pregnancy itself but because she lived with her three children. They were 14, 11 and 10 years old and were with him undergroundbent over the shelter listening to bombs and other bombs. I don’t have a diaper or root in the middlewith a disability, a hydrocephalus which worsened the war.

Concerning the child inside her, she said: “I am afraid that the child will not be born or give birth prematurely. I thought that if I was with him in Jersón I would take care of him until he could give him, until he got stuck there to give him to his parents who were waiting for him, ”said Tania.

He said he didn’t think to keep it. “I am clear that this child it belongs to the parents waiting for him, to them this child. I am ready to take care of her like a mother until I can give it to her. ”

Yes I was scared that parents don’t want. In pregnancy clinics, women not seeing the baby who gave birth after giving birth.

But Igor Petrovich said that at the beginning of the war the women who were about to give birth and the medical staff of the clinic were sleeping underground, in the lower part of the clinic., while in kyiv the bombs and bombs fell. “Children’s lives are in danger; here we protect them, “he said.

Meanwhile, Tania is in Kherson. I never thought about “program” money. He used to want it so that he could buy a house in his town but now he doesn’t know if he will return, he will decide after the war. He went to kyiv with his family and maybe he will use this money the rent on a flat.

“When it comes time to give birth, I’ll think about what to do,” explains Tania, who believes that yes she will rent her womb again if she canbecause of the war the money will come.

The war added insecurity and pain to these women who were bringing children into the world for money. The “contracts” were paralyzed by the war, but now they are moving forward, although Igor Petrovich sees this as normal for foreign families afraid to make contracts now.

In Ukraine, surrogacy is legal but there are gaps in the role of intermediaries. Lawyer Sergii Antonov assured that “one cannot say the total corruption and abuse”, but admitted that “violations of the law are taking place, although it is not massive”.

However, she understands that “the conditions for surrogate mothers were comfortable and their services were highly demanded by foreigners before the war and well paid”.

Igor Petrovich is proud to present the facilities of the clinic. He’s the primary doctor and he thinks he’s doing well in his business. He does not understand that in another country it is seen in a different way and the view of the wombs is approached from a perspective that he considers. “sensationalist”.

She believes that, beyond the war, Ukrainian women in need of money will have good economic results in her clinic.

Lourdes Velasco, EFE

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