Spain Closes Surrogacy Loophole, Bans Registration of Foreign-Born Children by Embassies

The Spanish government is tightening enforcement of its long-standing ban on surrogacy by prohibiting its embassies and consulates from registering children born through the practice abroad. New regulations, set to take effect Thursday, will cancel all pending registration cases and bar diplomats from accepting foreign birth certificates naming Spanish citizens as parents of surrogate-born children.

Although surrogacy has been illegal in Spain since 2006, Spanish couples have long bypassed the ban by securing court rulings in countries where surrogacy is legal and presenting those documents at consulates to register the child in Spain. That loophole closed in December 2023, when Spain’s Supreme Court declared the practice of recognizing foreign surrogacy rulings as illegal.

The crackdown comes amid growing political consensus against surrogacy. While rare in Spain’s polarized politics, the move has united voices from both the far right and far left, who oppose the practice on ethical and feminist grounds. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing government has been especially vocal, labeling surrogacy a form of exploitation in recent legislation and court submissions. In the 2023 reform of Spain’s abortion law, surrogacy was described as “violence against women,” and the Supreme Court echoed this sentiment, calling it a violation of the surrogate’s moral integrity and a commodification of children.

The new regulations require that a child’s legal parentage can only be determined after the child arrives in Spain. In such cases, only the biological parent — typically the father — may be registered, while the non-biological partner must apply for adoption after the surrogate formally relinquishes custody.

Spain is not alone in cracking down on surrogacy. Italy, under right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has criminalized traveling abroad for the purpose of surrogacy and restricted birth certificate registrations to biological parents only — a move seen as part of her broader campaign targeting LGBTQ+ families.

Further restrictions in Spain are expected in a forthcoming human trafficking bill, which could codify even stricter measures against surrogacy.