Madrid, Apr 22 (EFE).- A hundred feminists have gathered this Saturday in Madrid, in front of the Ministry of Justice, to reject the reproductive exploitation of women that surrogacy entails, some of them dressed as the protagonists of ” The Handmaid’s Tale”, to denounce that “it is not fiction”.
Under the motto “Women are not rented, babies are not bought. complicit state. Annulment Instruction 2010 NOW”’ and with proclamations such as “We are not incubators, we are not vessels, we are not wombs for rent”, the act was developed, convened by the abolitionist feminist associations Espacio Feminista Radical and Acción Feminista.
Ten of the conveners have attended the protest dressed in the “uniform” of the “maids” from the dystopian television series based on the novel by Margaret Atwood “The Handmaid’s Tale” to highlight that “it is not fiction , but it is already happening”, Silvia Vivanco, from Acción Feminista, told EFE.
“It is already happening that women in vulnerable situations are being bought or rented to fulfill the wishes of third parties,” he stressed.
The concentrated have demanded from the Government the immediate annulment of the Instruction of October 5, 2010, of the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries on the filiation of those born by surrogacy abroad, which has “facilitated regularization in Spain violence against thousands of women and the acquisition of their children”.
One of the objectives of the rally was to denounce the “inconsistency” of the government that calls itself the most feminist in history “but has done nothing to eliminate” said instruction, “which allows international trafficking in babies and the reproductive exploitation of women.” women, explained Vivanco.
“Enough of impunity for those who promote or benefit from the exploitation of vulnerable women and the trafficking of babies”, they have requested in the manifesto read during the protest act.
The conveners have denounced the “enormous business” that the so-called “wombs for rent” entail: between 50,000 and 200,000 euros is “the price of a newborn à la carte in an infamous international market.”
In addition, they have highlighted the “obvious fraud of the law committed by agencies, clinics, payers and the State itself, in full view of the whole world, with the collaboration of the media that launders this transnational trade in human beings.”
“In this country we have laws that are a dead letter for those who can pay to skip them,” have pointed out the feminists who have cited those of assisted reproduction or the latest reform of the Law on sexual and reproductive health and the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
In his opinion, reproductive exploitation should be expressly classified as a crime. “It is illegal and should be a crime that is violence against women, and that turns them into a mere instrument at the service of the wishes of third parties. It is not an assisted reproduction technique, but rather using women as human incubators”, they have pointed out.