The Chilean The Family Committee of the Chamber of Deputies began this week to discuss a bill supported by all political parties that would prohibit and penalize the practice of surrogate motherhood. Photo by widephish/Pixabay
Chile has joined other Latin American countries seeking to legislate surrogacy, which has expanded across the region with only limited regulation.
The Family Committee of the Chamber of Deputies began this week to discuss a bill supported by all political parties that would prohibit and penalize the practice of surrogate motherhood.
“There needs to be a legal and ethical debate because children are not consumer goods and motherhood creates bonds that are not easy to ignore,” lawmaker Ximena Ossandon, co-author of the bill, told UPI.
She warned that the supply of surrogacy services has increased with formal and informal advertising, particularly through social media, and said she hopes the bill can be approved by the end of this year.
Chile’s initiative adds to other countries in the region that seek to regulate the practice.
Reem Alsalem, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, warned at a February conference in Mexico about the expansion of surrogacy services in Latin America.
She said the surrogacy industry exploits women, while children suffer abandonment, sexual exploitation and may even be used for organ extraction.
Mexico’s National Action Party parliamentary group proposed in February prison sentences of up to 27 years for those who offer, promote, mediate or contract surrogacy services for commercial purposes as a way to legally define the crime of reproductive exploitation and violence against children.
“The initiative seeks to prevent exploitation and align our legal framework with international human rights principles. It makes clear that the goal is not to obstruct the legitimate desire to form a family, but to prevent that aspiration from taking shape under a market scheme,” National Action Party lawmaker Joanna Felipe Torres said.
According to a report by DW Español, Colombia also has become an attractive market for surrogacy. While the process can cost about $200,000 in the United States, it costs about $70,000 in Colombia.
In the absence of legislation protecting the parties involved, Colombia’s Constitutional Court has asked Congress to debate a law to regulate the practice, which involves fertility clinics and foundations that act as intermediaries in exchange for a commission.
In Argentina, surrogacy has been practiced for years without a comprehensive law regulating it. Cases are currently handled in a legal gray area. Some judges authorize them in advance, others recognize parentage after birth, and in certain jurisdictions, judicial intervention is avoided until after the fact.
Bioethics specialist and lawyer Javiera Bellolio, an assistant professor on the Faculty of Nursing and Obstetrics at the University of the Andes, told UPI there has been an increase in surrogacy due to a cross-border dynamic.
“People from wealthier countries hire women in weaker jurisdictions. The industry moves based on costs, waiting times and legal restrictions. In that scenario, Latin America emerges as a new destination due to the combination of inequality, regulatory gaps and a medical offering capable of selling the service as reproductive tourism,” she said.
She added that even where rules exist, oversight and enforcement mechanisms are often weak or nonexistent.
Public health specialist Angie Demierre, a midwife and clinical instructor in obstetrics at Andrés Bello University, told UPI that Latin America has become a hub for surrogacy because it has several structural factors that promote the practice.
“There is socioeconomic inequality, which can lead some women to consider these processes as an alternative in the face of urgent economic needs. On the other hand, there are regulatory gaps, which facilitate the emergence of intermediaries and private agreements without sufficient oversight,” she said.
This, she warned, has also facilitated the rise of medical tourism, where people from other countries seek to undergo these processes for lower costs or less regulation.
She said the landscape in Latin America is highly diverse, with countries where surrogacy is permitted or more regulated, such as Uruguay and certain states in Mexico, including Tabasco and Sinaloa.
Bellolio said the risk increases precisely where there is no explicit prohibition or where partial rules leave large gray areas, allowing the business to operate through intermediaries and private contracts that are difficult to supervise.
“One example of a gray area in the region is Argentina. In 2025, the case became known of a French woman who rejected a baby born through surrogacy because it was premature. The child was placed under state care and the court declared the child adoptable. It is a brutal reminder that in this market, when something goes wrong, the cost is paid by the most vulnerable,” she said.
The debate is also gaining traction because those involved in these arrangements often live in conditions of poverty, debt, informal work, lack of labor protection, economic violence and absence of support networks.
“In these contexts, a woman’s decision does not always occur under conditions of full freedom. It is not enough for consent to exist if that consent is conditioned by necessity,” Demierre said.
Bellolio said when a woman feels that receiving payment for becoming pregnant is her only option, it is not a free choice but a system that monetizes vulnerability.
“There is also a less visible dimension, economic and psychological violence exercised through abusive contracts, with restrictive clauses and legal language that is often not even in a language the woman can understand. That imbalance, where one party has lawyers and agencies,” she said.
Demierre added that another aspect to consider is that all pregnancies carry risks, even when desired and properly managed, which can endanger the health of the woman and the fetus.
In some countries, Bellolio said, cesarean sections are scheduled for surrogates without respecting medical indications or preferences, often so intended parents can arrive in time, increasing postpartum complications.
There is also evidence of mental health impacts, with some women facing a higher risk of psychological issues after childbirth, especially when there is economic pressure or lack of support.
“This does not mean that all experiences are negative, but it does make clear that support and protection cannot be optional,” Demierre said.
Bellolio said cases of emotional dissociation, reports consistent with post-traumatic stress occur, and practices such as preventing the woman from holding the newborn or cutting contact immediately after birth.
“In human terms, it is asking a woman to treat her pregnancy as a deliverable service,” she said.
