Contracts with Ukrainian surrogates are ‘null’ if  they give birth abroad

14th March 2022

Surrogate mothers Ukraine who give birth overseas after fleeing the war will be recorded as the child’s legal mother because in almost all countries the woman who gives birth is recorded as the mother on the birth certificate.

Advocacy group, Irish Families Through Surrogacy (IFTS), said it had been advised that contracts between Ukrainian women and Irish families will become “null and void” if surrogate mothers give birth outside Ukraine. Only Ukraine, Russia and Belarus allow commercial surrogacy contracts because of the dangers of exploiting low-income women and commodifying babies.

Irish families are currently paying to send pregnant women from dangerous cities to the Ukrainian countryside, or helping them cross the border into Poland until they can find a solution, or are seeking legal advice about the possibility of contracts being upheld if the babies are born in the Czech Republic.

Cathy Wheatley, a campaigner with IFTS said Irish families are concerned about the pregnant women “traumatised” by what is happening in Ukraine.

“We have to advise them that if the babies are not born on Ukrainian soil, the contracts are null and void.

“Some of them want to stay, and in those cases, Irish families are paying to get them to the Ukrainian countryside,” Ms Wheatley said.