Corona exposed the gray area of ​​surrogate parenthood

Tears streamed down Yevgenia Troyan's face as the plane she was on took off from Northern Cyprus, a remote part of Europe where Ukrainian surrogacy agencies have set up offices.

That flight in February was her last chance to return home to Ukraine before the borders were completely closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But she had to leave - or as she felt, abandon - the baby girl she had just given birth to a lesbian couple from London.

"I felt like I was leaving my own child," she said.

One of the more bizarre consequences of travel bans imposed due to covid-19 is that biological parents, babies and surrogate mothers have been scattered for months this year, and often left behind in different countries, writes the New York Times.

Ukraine, with its relatively lenient reproductive health laws and plenty of potential mothers among the poor, is a hub for this international business, say industry insiders and women's rights activists.

However, Ukrainian law does not allow surrogacy if the clients are same-sex couples or if they want to choose the sex of the child. That is why Ukrainian agencies are starting to send women to other countries for fertilization and childbirth, most often in, from a legal point of view, gray areas such as the internationally unrecognized, self-proclaimed state in the northern part of the island of Cyprus, which enjoys the support of Turkey.

"The ideal destination for all model families," says the website of the agency Surogatstvo 365, which offers these services.

Surrogate mothers go there for embryo implantation, then return to Ukraine where they spend seven months of pregnancy, only to return to Northern Cyprus to give birth to a child.

Secret business revealed

The travel bans drew attention earlier this year to heterosexual couples who were unable to take their children from Ukraine. At one point, 79 babies were blocked in Kiev and cared for by nurses in a hotel.

In neighboring Russia, where surrogate motherhood is also allowed, a member of the Kremlin's human rights council told The Guardian that as many as 1.000 babies were left behind by surrogate mothers. Due to the closing of the borders, babies born by surrogate mothers from Ukraine were also trapped in third countries.

This is a very common illegal business in countries like Northern Cyprus, Transnistria (Transnistria), Abkhazia and other unrecognized states, Sergiy Antonov, lawyer, specialist in reproductive law in Ukraine, told the New York Times.

In the Turkish part of Cyprus, mothers from Ukraine give birth to babies without any contract governing surrogacy. Instead, they relinquish custody of the child after the birth, allowing the biological parents to adopt the child. This legal process can take several weeks.

In February and March, 14 mothers from Ukraine, fearing border closures, left Northern Cyprus before completing the procedure of handing over their children to their biological parents. The babies they gave birth to remained thus in legal limbo. The dispute between the agents and the mothers that followed reached the Ukrainian media, so this otherwise secret business came to light. The women claim that they received poor medical service and that the caesarean section was mandatory, which can also be seen from the medical records of the postpartum treatment. One of the babies passed away.

Pretend they are yours

"These illegal programs became visible only because the travel ban due to the pandemic disrupted their business model," Svitlana Burkovska, director of the NGO "Mother's Force", told The New York Times.

Burkovska estimates that last year, before the borders were closed, about 3.000 women from Ukraine went abroad for surrogate motherhood, while about 30.000 of them went to donate eggs, which mostly happened far from the public eye.

"It's very risky for women in labor," she said.

A surrogate mother from the group who introduced herself as Jana (22) was carrying the baby of a gay couple from England. The baby was born in the 36th week of pregnancy by caesarean section.

"I was able to easily carry the pregnancy to term," she said.

As the coronavirus began to spread in February, the surrogacy agency asked the mothers to stay in Famagusta and pretend they were their children until the paperwork was completed, but they returned to Ukraine.

"They told me to say that the father of the child is my husband if the police come to check," said Julija (40), who came to give birth to twins to a gay couple from England.

Julija is in contact with the couple who paid more than 100.000 euros for this venture. However, the couple could not take the girls, but they are temporarily in a foster family.

A gay couple from Great Britain who had a baby girl by Mrs. Trojan still managed to get the baby out of Northern Cyprus.

And where is your baby?

Not all Ukrainian women who went abroad to provide surrogate motherhood services were exposed to such torture.

Lyudmila Medvedchuk (40) performed an embryo transfer in Ukraine, and gave birth in mid-February in Poland without any problems. She told The New York Times that she enjoyed the experience and plans to be a surrogate mother again.

However, mothers who gave birth in Northern Cyprus now have problems in Ukraine to refund money for post-natal treatments.

Two agencies that contract births blame mothers for abandoning babies and publicly call them names. They published their names on the Internet to intimidate them, and on social networks they belittle them and call them "cattle". One of the agencies refused to comment on the situation to The New York Times.

Carlos Alberto Leiva Sinjes, a manager at the Surrogacy 365 agency, declined to comment on his company's operations and replied that the New York Times was "requesting confidential information." Two gay couples contacted by the American paper through their mothers declined to comment.

And in Ukraine, women who do not have documents showing that they have relinquished custody of their children fear that social services may launch an investigation after seeking postpartum medical services without having babies to give birth to.

"I'm afraid they might arrest me," Jana said, adding that the doctors had already asked her a question she couldn't answer: "And where is your baby?"

We don't need more deaths

The NGO "Mother's Force" is currently investigating an illegal maternity hospital located in an apartment in the city of Famagusta in Northern Cyprus. The mothers described it as a secret hospital where the nurses spoke only Turkish, and the doctors did not even know the history of the patients.

"When I arrived at the hospital, the doctor was surprised to hear that I had previously had a caesarean section," said one of the women who introduced herself to the New York Times as Ira. She did not want her last name to be published because she hides from family and friends that she was a surrogate mother.

It was too late to follow the procedure and perform a cesarean delivery.

"The anesthesiologist entered the makeshift hospital wearing a winter jacket instead of a hospital uniform," she said.

Then she gave birth. Hours later, she watched her newborn die on the table as doctors fought to save his life. She had internal bleeding and was vomiting.

"They obviously didn't have enough staff," Ira said. "The baby was put aside. It was a beautiful little girl and she looked healthy. She wasn't breathing, but I saw that she was moving," she added, crying.

After this case, Turkish doctors demanded that the children be born by caesarean section, and one surrogate mother was allowed to give birth naturally.

"I begged to have a natural birth," Ms. Trojan said. "They promised me that they would allow me, but suddenly the doctor came in and said that he would immediately do a caesarean section."

One of the agents texted her on the phone: "We don't need any more deaths."