This concerns less than ten French couples. All of them started a process of surrogacy in Ukraine before the war, the use of a surrogate mother being illegal in France. But a few weeks, sometimes only a few days before the due date of the pregnancy, Russia invaded the country.
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“These future parents have seen themselves forced to bring home the woman who is carrying their child and who is due to give birth in the weeks or months to come, explains the lawyer Clélia Richard, who accompanies these parents. These women were in imminent danger for their safety, first for themselves and for the child they are carrying.
“And I can tell you that their decision to bring the woman carrying their baby to France, for me too, is an ethical issue. It is above all the safety of human beings that is at stake.
Clélia Richard, lawyer for French couples using surrogacyat franceinfo
According to Maître Richard, the issue of these repatriations is not financial: “It’s not saving the €60,000 we put into surrogacy despite the risk of criminal prosecution, because 100% of my intended parents know it’s a risk they run.”
Associations opposed to surrogacy intend to bring these cases to justice. According to AFP, the association Juristes pour l’Enfance has already filed five complaints against X with various courts, denouncing deliveries under X in France of Ukrainian surrogate mothers. She indicated that she had filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Aix-en-Provence, Amiens, La Roche-sur-Yon, Lyon and Saintes for “provocation to abandon a child”.
For these associations, these exceptions are an open door to legalization in France, argues Aude Mirkovic, legal director of the association Juristes pour l’Enfance: “There is no need to be a diviner to see the next step. We will say: ‘it is completely useless to bring a foreign woman to give birth in France. You might as well speak directly to a woman on the spot’. This is how from the beginning, the surrogacy is established step by step until its complete legalization.
“The resignation of justice allows the market to establish itself little by little on our soil.”
Aude Mirkovic, legal director of the association Juristes pour l’Enfanceat franceinfo
Child welfare also made a report to the public prosecutor of Saintes, in Charente-Maritime. He is currently the only one to open a preliminary investigation.