Proposal to ban surrogacy in Mexico, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): A bill from the Labor Party (PT) seeks to prohibit surrogacy in Mexico and set prison sentences of up to 25 years for those who take part in these procedures.
Deputy Nora Yessica Merino Escamilla, of the Labor Party (PT), presented an initiative to ban surrogacy in Mexico and establish penalties of up to 25 years in prison for anyone who carries out, promotes, finances or intervenes in these procedures.
The proposal would amend and add provisions to the General Health Law, the General Law to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Crimes in Matters of Human Trafficking, and the Federal Criminal Code. Its stated aim is to classify reproductive exploitation as a form of exploitation of persons.
Under the initiative, surrogacy would be defined as a case in which a woman carries a pregnancy under an agreement, contract or arrangement to hand the newborn over to someone other than the woman who gave birth, whether or not economic compensation is involved.
The proposed penalties include 15 to 25 years in prison and fines of 2,000 to 30,000 days for anyone who arranges for a woman to carry a pregnancy in order to hand the child to third parties or to establish filiation in favor of someone other than the gestational mother.
The same penalties would apply to those who recruit, transfer, house or hold women for that purpose, as well as to those who promote, facilitate, finance, advertise or broker these procedures. Health professionals and public notaries who knowingly take part would also face sanctions.
The initiative provides that penalties could be increased by up to half when the gestational mother is a minor, belongs to an Indigenous or Afro-Mexican community, is in poverty or migration circumstances, or when a public servant or member of organized crime is involved.
The proposal also states that women who act as gestational mothers should not be held criminally responsible but recognized as victims entitled to protection, assistance and comprehensive reparation.
For medical facilities, the bill sets prison terms of four to nine years, fines of 10,000 to 15,000 times the Unit of Measurement and Update (UMA), and permanent closure of facilities that allow these procedures. The same sanctions would apply to agencies and businesses dedicated to brokering them.
The proposal also would add Article 366 Quinquies to the Federal Criminal Code to punish with eight to 15 years in prison and fines of 1,000 to 5,000 days those who hand over or receive a newborn as part of a surrogacy agreement, when the acts do not constitute human trafficking.
The initiative has been referred to the joint Health and Justice committees of the Chamber of Deputies for review, while the Human Rights Commission will issue an opinion. The report notes that the article has not been independently verified.
