Child Trafficking: Selling Children Through Abortion and Big Fertility

The trafficking of surrogacy is not limited to the surrogate, which may be under the age of 18 in some countries, but children are also commodified in the process. The idea that a baby is immediately separated from the only relationship it knows and handed off to prospective parents is concerning. Within hours after birth, studies have shown that babies have a preference and physiological reaction to the voice of their birth mother’s. To be separated from that and handed to strangers, even if they are the genetic parents, is disturbing for a child and can cause adjustment disorders.

As previously mentioned, socioeconomical status and poverty levels also play a large role in big fertility via surrogacy. In fact, surrogacy has become a transnational market, resembling patterns seen in other industries where wealthier nations drive demand and poorer countries supply the labor. While some counties restrict or ban surrogacy, developing nations with high fertility rates become “surrogacy paradises,” and have little to no surrogacy regulations, making them a hub for reproductive exploitation.

In Ukraine, for example, the poorly regulated surrogacy industry dominates the global market and has documented cases of forced surrogacy and illegal adoptions, putting children and financially vulnerable women at risk of exploitation. “Baby factories” have even been created in Nigeria in which young girls are kidnapped, raped until impregnated, then their children are placed for sale on the illegal adoption market. This is a form of child trafficking for both the victims of forced surrogacy and children sold to prospective parents.

The legalities of surrogacy cause issues as well. The couple with parental rights over the child can make all the calls, even if they are in direct contradiction with the surrogates’ beliefs. “Abortion clauses,” for example, is a type of surrogacy contract in which the “product,” i.e. the preborn child or children, can be killed via abortion if he or she does not meet the qualities or standards that the prospective parents desire. Generally, the surrogate mother has some control over the decision to abort, but she could also face legal and financial repercussions if she and the intended parents disagree. Some surrogates have even been offered additional compensation for abortion, which notably occurred with Crystal Kelley: a surrogate mother who was offered $10,000 to abort after finding out that the baby she was carrying for another couple would have serious birth defects.