Yasmina Kattou edited by Wassila Belhacine 07:23, March 11, 2022

French families are worried about their surrogacy procedures started in Ukraine.

If associations want an easy repatriation for parents and their children, others denounce an "exploitation" of Ukrainian women and a hypocrisy.

Expectant parents who have used surrogate mothers in Ukraine become collateral damage of war.

The use of surrogate mothers has exploded for twenty years in Ukraine, which authorizes them for married and heterosexual couples.

Every year, about 2,000 babies in Ukraine are born via surrogacy (GPA).

At a time of war in the country, French couples see their surrogacy project in Ukraine thwarted by the conflict.

Anti-GPA associations denounce hypocrisy.

The parents themselves cannot pick up their child already born or are worried about their unborn child from a surrogate mother stuck today under the bombs.

Shared associations 

Sylvie Mennesson is president of the CLARA association.

It helps parents who use surrogate mothers abroad.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine two weeks ago, several expectant parents have called him worried.

Even if Sylvie Mennesson dissuades parents from having recourse to surrogacy with criteria that are too unethical in Ukraine, the activist pleads for France to help them today: "we are asking the government to bring in the parents, the children, the surrogate if she also requests it, without waiting for them to have birth certificates issued because the civil status service no longer works", she asks. 

>> Find Europe Matin in replay and podcast here

But for Ana-Luana Soicéa Deram, president of the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy, the French sponsors could not ignore the war in the country: "the war in the Donbass has been present for eight years, however, customers from everywhere went there. Ukrainian women have been exploited for years. Today, what is happening is absolutely hypocrisy," she denounces at the microphone of Europe 1.

According to the activist, just last week, some Ukrainian clinics practicing surrogacy continued their activities, despite the Russian bombs.

In Ukraine, GPAs are billed between 40,000 and 60,000 dollars on average by the establishments that practice them.