In Mexico, Restrictions Impede Surrogacy
the globe over the past decade as adoption rules become more stringent. But several markets have boomed and then abruptly closed to foreigners or people who are not in heterosexual marriages, often catching parents in a messy transition from one law to the next.
Tabasco, where surrogacy has been legal since 1997, became a hub after India closed its doors, first to gay and then to foreign would- be parents, starting in 2013, and Thailand followed suit.
In Tabasco, the new restrictions closed a lucrative door for hundreds of women where the unemployment rate is over 7 percent, the highest in Mexico.
“There are no opportunities here,” said Mariana, 34, an unemployed saleswoman who bore twins for an Australian man last year. She did not want her full name used.
She said that the pregnancy, for
Officials say new laws protect children from abuse.
which she was paid about $10,000, was her “only chance to get ahead.”
But the baby boom ended when legislators changed the civil code in 2016 to limit surrogacy to Mexican heterosexuals.
Juan José Peralta Fócil, legal coordinator for the Tabasco State government, said the system had been abused by foreigners. Without offering evidence, he said the authorities believed that some parents intended to traffic their children’s organs or use them for pornography. He said he also believed that parents in their 70s were raising domestic slaves who would help them in their dotage, adding, “What would someone of that age want with a child?”
Carolin Schurr, an assistant professor at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland who has studied surrogacy in Tabasco, believes that while the market has had its share of scandals, talk of abuse is a fig leaf for official unease with gay couples hiring Tabascan women. She reckons about 70 percent of Tabasco’s surrogacy clients were gay foreigners.
“It’s more about being against homosexual families,” she said.
In December, the Tabasco civil registry began to refuse to issue birth certificates to children born through surrogacy after mid- October. Without a birth certificate, the children could not receive passports to leave Mexico.
Some families have successfully sued the registry for their birth certificates, their lawyers said. In other cases, foreign embassies have intervened.
Mr. Theologos, who was the only parent to have his child taken from him, hired three different lawyers to no avail. In late January, his case was taken up by the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, or GIRE, a nonprofit that advocates for reproductive rights.
The group argued that Alexandros was forcibly taken, said Anel Ortega, a lawyer who works with GIRE. Alexandros was returned to Mr. Theologos on January 31, and the two left Mexico three weeks later.
Mr. Peralta, the Tabasco official, said recently that six families were waiting to get birth certificates. But as one family’s ordeal ends, others will begin.
“We won’t issue them birth certificates,” he said, adding, “They must sue.”
Surrogacy experts and surrogates said that barring foreigners would simply push the trade underground. The only way to draw people wanting families away from unregulated markets is to make laws more favorable in their home countries, experts said. Some American states, including California, allow surrogacy, which can cost $180,000 and involve long waits.
Mr. Theologos said that including his legal battles and hotel bills, he spent about $90,000 on the process in Mexico.
Still, Mr. Theologos plans to take Alexandros back to Mexico to see Beatriz, who, he said, “will always be the mother of my child.” Mr. Theologos told Beatriz he was already making arrangements for Alexandros’s Mexican passport.
“I want him to know his roots,” he said.