Ukraine MPs plan temporary surrogacy ban for foreigners

Draft legislation banning surrogacy for foreigners in Ukraine during the period of martial law and for three years after, with criminal penalties for noncompliance, is expected to be voted on in coming months.

MPs responsible for drafting the legislation told the Sunday Times the aim of the law was to establish clear rules over surrogacy and IVF, in an attempt to discourage the 'touristic Mecca' for surrogacy they said Ukraine had become. The legislation also aims to establish requirements for those acting as surrogates, record keeping for all foreign intended parents, and the prohibition of agencies, intermediaries, and advertising. It seeks to recognise foreign married same-sex couples as intended parents for the first time, as currently only heterosexual married couples can access surrogacy in Ukraine.

Viktoria Vahnier – a gynaecologist and war widow, and one of the MPs proposing the legislation from President Zelensky's Servant of the People party – said: 'This field is completely unregulated. Foreigners come here and use Ukrainian women to carry babies, and who knows what happens to these kids afterwards.'

'It is not dignified,' she added, stating that she and other MPs were concerned about women's health and Ukraine's declining population as a result of the ongoing war.

Surrogacy in Ukraine enjoyed some popularity before the war, due to low costs and legal clarity which allowed intended parents to be named as the legal parents from birth. However, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in March 2022 led to significant challenges for intended parents seeking to be united with their babies as they struggled to get into the country safely, and surrogates fled to other countries (see BioNews 1130 and 1148).

It is unclear how many surrogates have received embryo transfers since the war began. The BioTexCom clinic in Kyiv, Ukraine reported that there are 140 surrogates who are more than 12 weeks pregnant at its clinic alone, and 39 children have been born via the clinic since February last year.

Clinics are calling for more regulation of the industry, rather than a ban, and question how a ban on commercial surrogacy will affect the country's demographics. 'It's nonsense,' said Ihor Pechenoha, 53, medical director at BioTexCom clinic. 'It's dressed up in patriotism.' He argued that the legislation in its current form could lead to a lack of clarity over the legal situation concerning embryos in storage in Ukrainian clinics.