April 2018 – Article 3:
(Note: While researching this article, Georgia Right to Life determined that surrogacy in Georgia is virtually unchecked. That issue will be discussed in depth in the next newsletter).
Sometimes, what starts as a well-intentioned idea, ends up leading to an evil result. Efforts to help couples conceive children is a prime example.
Last month, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee signed into law the Uniform Parentage Act, which legalizes commercializing gestational surrogacy, opening the flood gates for the exploitation of vulnerable women and the endangerment of children.
Gestational surrogacy means the woman involved has no biological connection to the child she carries.
Georgia is not far behind Washington since there are virtually no laws or regulations governing the process. Look for an in depth article on surrogacy in the May newsletter.
The Washington law does not require any of the parties involved to be state residents. That includes the donors, the surrogate, or even those purchasing the child. As a result, critics fear Washington will become a global destination for child trafficking.
Worse, the law’s definition of “intended parents” states they don’t have to be genetically connected to the child. In other words, children conceived under this law can be subjected to a completely fabricated family tree.
Also, “intended parents” can be any combination of adults. They can be any gender, married or not. And the law does not limit the number of potential parents to just two. For example, five men could pay to create a child through surrogacy and all have parental rights.
Previously, the state did not permit for-profit compensation and only allowed women to be reimbursed for medical and other expenses associated with acting as a surrogate.
Promoters of the new law insist the goal is to reduce the suffering of infertile couples.
State Representative Liz Pike was quoted saying she and other Republicans opposed the bill “…to protect the womb from being monetized and commercialized. This bill sets virtually no limits on the amount people will be able to sell or purchase a human baby for.”
Saying she is “disgusted” over the measure, Rep. Pike added: “What have we become as a state, selling human babies to the highest bidder? Is this who we are?”
And Washington is not alone in this lunacy. Similar laws are being considered in Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia.
Even the European Union Parliament in 2015 condemned paid surrogacy because it “undermines the human dignity of the woman since her body and its reproductive functions are used as a commodity.”
It called the practice exploitative, violence against women, and “a matter of urgency in human rights.”
A recent Georgia Right to Life newsletter article, The Evil of Surrogacy Revealed, demonstrated how surrogacy can be terribly misused, placing innocent children in dangerous situations.
Reporting on the Washington law, Breakpoint Ministries made a troubling observation—the bill’s primary sponsor and his “husband” have four children conceived through surrogacy, but had to make arrangements for the egg donor and surrogate mother in California where compensation is allowed.
The article pointed out that their story is not unique. A 2016 Chicago Tribune study of fertility clinics in 10 different cities found that: “10 to 20 percent of donor eggs are going to gay men having babies via surrogacy, and in a lot of places the numbers are up 50 percent from five years ago.”
The person whose organization conducted the study for the Tribune said: “We think this is going to be pretty darn commonplace…Maybe not tomorrow, but five years from now, maybe 10 years from now, everybody will know a few people who have built their families through gay surrogacy.
Less than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court approved same sex marriage in 2016, we already have predictions that gay couples using surrogacy to have children will be “pretty darn commonplace.”
Pretty darn tragic!
Pro-life supporters need to understand that gestational surrogacy—no matter the reason—is morally and ethically wrong and be prepared to speak out when necessary. It dehumanizes an individual’s Personhood by turning babies into a for-profit commodity and can cause psychological and emotional harm to the women involved.
Sources: lifesitenews.com; breakpoint.org; christianpost.com; thembeforeus.com.
By Wayne DuBois
Georgia Right to Life
Media Relations Advisor