Pope Francis Calls for Ban on Surrogate Motherhood

Pope Francis on Monday termed surrogate motherhood a “despicable” practice and called for its universal ban. In his annual speech on threats to global peace and human dignity, the pope included the “commercialisation” of pregnancy.

Pope Francis said the life of the unborn child must be protected and not “suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking”.

“I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs,” he said.

He cited Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, migration, climate crises and the “immoral” production of nuclear and conventional weapons to say that 2024 had dawned at a time in history in which peace is “increasingly threatened, weakened and in some part lost”.