Canadian surrogate mothers refuse to carry Israeli babies to protest 'genocide'

Two Canadian agencies that provide surrogates, women who become impregnated with someone else's child for money, say they can’t find surrogates who will carry Israeli babies, the National Post reported Monday. The reasoning of the women would be that this would show support for the Gaza war and would therefore be furthering "genocide."

Many of the women are angry at Israel’s ongoing fight against Hamas terrorists in Gaza after the nation was attacked on Oct. 7. Israel declared war after they were attacked. That terrorist attack resulted in at least 1,200 Israelis killed.

But others say it’s not about whether Israel is mistreating the Palestinian populace, their opposition is just rooted in unwillingness to send a child back to a chronically war-torn part of the world. Some even fear criticism from friends or family if they reveal that the child they are carrying is an Israeli.

“We very much have seen an impact from the conflict between Israel and Palestine, with how these clients are being affected here in Canada,” Jacki Lebert, CEO of Ontario’s Platinum Surrogacy, told the Post.

“There are surrogates who feel that carrying for an Israeli would be supporting genocide … More frequently than that is the fear (of harm to the parents or baby or reprisals for them).” Lebert said her agency usually deals with up to 100 Israeli clients every year and while she welcomes Israeli interest, she notes that she can’t force a surrogate to work with someone she doesn’t want to.

Israel babies haven’t been wanted at Surrogacy in Canada either, the Post reported. “Lately, I don’t have any (surrogates) that will consider it at all,” said agency head Sally Rhoads-Heinrich about surrogates accepting Israeli clients.

“They feel it’s a genocide, or they say it’s too much religion. They don’t like seeing innocent women and children being killed over there. They say things like – ‘I don’t want a child to grow up in a war zone – missiles, bombs, suicide attacks.’”

Both agencies claim the objections are not based in raw anti-semitism but have only become an issue since Israel has continued its war in Gaza. But has anger over the occupation morphed into hatred for Jews? Lawyer Sara Cohen said the attitude that all Israelis are part of a monolithic world view and not individuals with nuanced feelings about the conflict in the Mideast is disturbing.

“When it was first presented to me … it was more about comments calling Israelis murderers and not wanting to bring the next generation of murderers into the world, and that’s what I found devastating,” she said. “It was making a decision about an entire group of people.”

She took to social media to describe her frustration and sadness and while many of the comments she received were supportive, all were not. “Typical Zionists – entitled to other people’s land so why wouldn’t they be entitled to other people’s wombs?” read one reply.