surrogate mother exploitation

Surrogate mothers ask Supreme Court to stop ‘exploitation’ of women and babies

Source The Washington Post

Melissa Cook’s story became headline news in 2015 when she was carrying triplets as a surrogate. The intended dad asked her to abort at least one of them, she says, because he couldn’t afford to raise them all. She refused and has been fighting for custody of the children in court ever since.

Cook and two other surrogate mothers — Gail Robinson and Toni Bare — are in Washington this week to call on the Supreme Court to provide more clarity on the rights of women and children in the controversial industry. The women, who have separately filed lawsuits in different states, say surrogacy contracts are exploitative to the birth mothers, create a class of women as breeders and commodify children.

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