From next week, Spain will ban its embassies from registering babies born through surrogacy. This follows the Spanish Supreme Court ruling late last year which established in law that surrogacy exploits women and harms children’s rights.
Starting Thursday, embassies and consulates will cancel all pending registration appointments. Diplomats will be forbidden from accepting overseas documentation that recognises Spanish citizens as the parents of a child or children born through surrogacy.
The policy follows Italy’s decision to impose an extra-territorial “common sense law against the commodification of the female body and children.”
Surrogacy has been prohibited in Spain since 2006. The law permits a surrogate child’s adult biological relative—typically a father— to register as its parent, while the other partner can only apply for adoption after the surrogate mother formally gives up the baby. The shift in embassy practice is aimed at human trafficking and overcoming discrepancies between domestic law and the policy towards other less-regulated countries.
