Pope Francis wants an international ban on surrogacy. He finds it “reprehensible” for a woman to carry a child for someone else. He sees this way of having children as a “serious violation” of the rights of women and children.
A surrogate mother is pregnant for people who would like to become parents, but cannot do so themselves. Such as homosexual couples or infertile people. The surrogate mother hands the child over to the intended parents immediately after birth. Critics of surrogacy worry that vulnerable women bear children for others solely for financial reasons.
Surrogacy is already prohibited in several countries. Italy is one of those countries. The far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to go one step further with her government with a law that makes it a punishable offense for Italians to travel abroad for a surrogate mother.
In the Netherlands, it is legal to have children through a surrogate mother, but it is forbidden to make money from it. It is also prohibited to advertise it.
On Monday, the Pope also criticized the ‘gender theory’. This theory holds that gender is more complex than the difference between male and female genders. He called this theory “extremely dangerous.”.
Pope previously decided that same-sex couples can be blessed
The pope’s statements are striking because he decided last month that priests can bless same-sex couples. The Vatican immediately added that this should absolutely not be seen as an alternative to marriage.
Yet the blessing of same-sex couples came as a bombshell in more conservative parts of the Catholic world. Especially in Africa, where the church is growing by far the fastest, the papal decision led to misunderstanding and anger.
There is also much debate about how exactly it should be interpreted. For example, some clergy suggest that the individuals are blessed, not the couple. There are approximately 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide.
