Buying a surrogate in Colombia is as easy as selling or buying a used car in classifieds. Just go to Facebook to find dozens of offers: “I’m renting my womb, I’m from Colombia,” says one. “Hello, I am interested in renting my uterus. Strong womb and uncomplicated pregnancies,” reads another. As if it were a giant auction, the news outlets compete with each other to offer what they believe to be the most favorable terms for customers. On the same pages, buyers make their requirements clear. In general, prospects are looking for what every customer studies in a classified ad: good quality and reasonable price.
In Colombia, the purchase of babies through surrogate mothers is becoming increasingly common. There is no type of regulation for this practice that is banned in countries like Spain, France or Germany. Dozens of agencies and clinics use this legal vacuum to do business, mostly for foreigners who come to the Andean country in search of a non-bureaucratic way to rent a womb.
Yamile from Barranquilla is 33 years old and one of the women offering her services as a surrogate mother on a forum. “We have a clinic here that will do the entire procedure for you, and I have a cousin who will do all the paperwork for us,” he assures a potential buyer over the phone. Yamile cannot bring herself to say when she will be paid.
– How much are you offering me?
– 20 million [unos 4.000 dólares].
— But it’s a very cheap rent.
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— I’m asking for 40 million in total. He would pay me a million and a half a month and the rest when I delivered the baby.
Yamile has two children of her own and this is the first time she has lent her womb to give birth to other people’s children. “My cousin did it and convinced me to come here,” he says.
When Yamile says her cousin is doing the paperwork for her, she’s referring to sneakily paying to a notary public so the birth register has the buyers’ name right on it, and they don’t have to go through the normal adoption process. Not only would this be more complicated, it would also take a lot more time.
In Colombia, the registry office determines who the parents of a newborn are. The information in the register is filled in from the so-called “live birth certificate”, which is filled in by the doctor or nurse accompanying the delivery. In this certificate, the woman giving birth is identified as the mother and whoever she identifies as the father. This is also why surrogacy clinics pay doctors to appear with the name of the parents who bought the baby, rather than the woman who just gave birth. The whole business is well connected.
Various offers of rental houses in Facebook groups in Colombia.
These operations have created a network of document forgery and fraudulent newborn registrations that authorities are unable to effectively stop. With lawyers backed by notaries, hundreds of foreigners return to their country every year with a baby born by a surrogate mother. There are no records of the rent.
In recent years, congressmen from various political parties, such as the Center Democratic Party, have introduced 16 bills to the Republic Congress to regulate this practice and make it valid only if it is not for profit. None of these projects made it past the initial discussions. Bellies are now being sold cheaper and under worse conditions for women.
The former congressman of the right-wing Democratic Center Santiago Valencia presented four of these bills. Valencia considers it extremely important to regulate this practice in the country, but assures that it has lost some faith after the failed attempts. “Until something very serious happens to a surrogate, no one is going to do anything. It’s a business,” he says.
In September 2022, the Constitutional Court directed Congress to regulate surrogacy in Colombia. It gave him six months to do so after a ruling revealed the underlying problems with this practice. But nothing has progressed yet.
There are two ways of renting a womb in Colombia: in one, the pregnant woman has no genetic relationship with the embryo, that is, the fertilized egg cell belongs to another woman and she only houses it. With the other modality, the situation is complicated: the woman donates her own egg and carries it to term. The practice comes with so many legal complications that some agencies ban it, despite being another business channel.
Wendy, 29, gives both options to everyone who comes in contact with her. Because according to the demanding laws of supply and demand, only those who stand out from the competition win. “I’m asking for 20 million and a monthly payment of 1 million for nine months,” he says. A total of 32 million pesos, just over 6,000 euros, much cheaper than the 40,000 or 50,000 euros that agencies in countries like Spain charge. Of course, keep in mind that the notary fees for skipping the adoption process are also borne by the buyers.
Substitute agencies: $65,000 all-in
It is possible to carry out the pregnancy through agencies in charge of providing a hotel, transport, delivery and completing all the formalities within a maximum period of one year. But that costs ten times what Wendy is offering: around $65,000. Peace has a price.
“Because Bogotá is 2,600 meters above sea level, it is not recommended that our surrogate mothers have multiple or twin pregnancies. You have to use a girl for every baby,” reads a quote from one of the agencies operating in the country.
Some of the agencies give the prospective parents the opportunity to choose the sex of the baby. They can even choose the color of their skin: ‘Thanks to scientific and technical advances, this type of identification can be done with embryos,’ explains the agency’s website.
Information brochure of a surrogacy in Colombia.
These agencies require women lending their wombs to have had children without problems before, not to smoke or drink alcohol, and to have Colombian ID. Furthermore, they only accept women between the ages of 20 and 38 who are of a healthy weight and willing to be checked throughout the process.
“Some women are locked up during their pregnancy in apartments rented by agencies to control them and inject them with all the hormones that change the baby’s appearance,” says former Congressman Valencia.
Although there are no statistics on surrogacy in Colombia, offers classified according to Congress to offer this service in the country are 90% cheaper than in the US and Western Europe.
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