"It's an attack on minors," say parents through surrogacy

The government's decision to prevent the registration in Spain of babies born via surrogacy abroad, even when there is a final ruling from the judicial authorities of those third countries, has sparked criticism from the parents of these children. The association 'They Are Our Children', which brings together families from across Spain who have turned to surrogacy as a means of becoming parents, believes the measure represents "an attack on minors," according to Pablo Bilbao, spokesperson for the group and father of a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl through this assisted reproduction technique. Although there is no official census, it is estimated that there are around ten thousand children in Spain born abroad through surrogacy.

"We are surprised and concerned by the decision. Essentially because it deprives children of rights that have been granted to them by nothing less than a judicial ruling. In other words, it is a direct attack on minors because they are deprived of direct registration, which has been happening since 2010, thanks to an instruction implemented by Pedro Zerolo at the time, that is, by the PSOE itself," Bilbao specifies.

The spokesperson recalls that such registration was done in the "most guaranteeing" countries in this process, such as the United States and Canada, where a court issued a judicial ruling confirming that the process "had been carried out with all guarantees, protecting the rights of all parties and establishing the filiation directly, that is, who the father and mother of that baby are." In those cases, the direct registration of children in the corresponding Spanish consulates in the United States and Canada was allowed, something the government now wants to cut off at the root.

Bilbao points out that precisely that instruction, which the government has now replaced with another regulation (to be published this Thursday in the BOE), encouraged families to turn to countries "most guaranteeing and protective of the rights of all parties, especially women. And that is what this government has taken away," he laments.

In his view, this stance represents "an absolute contradiction" with the protection of minors that "the government claims to want to achieve," and represents "a direct attack" on minors, "who are deprived for a time of rights they already had granted by ruling." The member of 'They Are Our Children' particularly emphasises the phrase "for a time" because, he assures, the children will be registered in the Spanish Civil Registry "one way or another." "They will be registered through another mechanism, but they will be registered as it cannot be otherwise, because the European Court of Human Rights obliges states to register children." Bilbao admits that they now face an adoption process, "which will be long and tedious" and will cause an overload in the courts, during which the children will be deprived of rights they already had, which is very serious."

In this regard, he believes that the Ministry of Justice's decision "is nonsense" that will only lead to "media noise and populism" and reiterates that families will continue to resort to surrogacy and that the children "will continue to be registered" in Spain.