Bill in Colombia's Congress would ban surrogacy and penalize clinics and brokers
A bill filed in Colombia's Congress on August 19, 2026, would ban surrogacy and create a criminal offense of reproductive exploitation carrying 120 to 192 months in prison. The penalties would fall on clinics and intermediaries, not on the women who give birth
Colombia's Congress has received a bill that would ban surrogacy, commonly known in Spanish as "vientre de alquiler," or womb for rent. The measure, filed on August 19, 2026, is intended to stop the reproductive exploitation of women and to prevent children from being treated as objects of commercial transactions.
The bill responds to calls from Colombia's Constitutional Court, which has urged Congress to legislate on the practice. The court cited the effects of the legal vacuum on the fundamental rights of the women who carry the pregnancies and of the children born through it.
Representative Luis Miguel López Aristizábal, the author of the bill, said the lack of regulation has made Colombia one of the main destinations for what is known as reproductive tourism, with foreign couples traveling to the country to acquire babies.
According to the text of the bill, surrogacy packages in Colombia start at $63,500, or about 215.9 million Colombian pesos, of which the woman who carries the pregnancy receives between 25 million and 40 million pesos. More than 85 percent of the money stays with clinics and intermediaries.
The bill does not criminalize the women who carry the pregnancies. It seeks to protect them and directs penalties at those who promote, broker, finance or organize surrogacy. It creates a new criminal offense, "reproductive exploitation through surrogacy," carrying prison terms of 120 to 192 months and fines of between 500 and 1,500 times the minimum wage.
Under the bill, the mother of children carried or born in Colombia is the woman who carries and delivers them, and she would not be required to return payments received for the surrogacy. The penalties would also apply to Colombian citizens who take part in the practice abroad.
The international campaigner Olivia Maurel, who was born through surrogacy and wrote the book "¿Dónde estás, mamá?" ("Where Are You, Mom?"), took part in the presentation of the bill. Speaking at a forum, Maurel described her own experience and stressed the importance of passing the law to protect Colombia's most vulnerable women and to protect children from the consequences of the practice.
López Aristizábal said the bill is backed by 15 legislators from several parties, including the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, Movimiento Salvación Nacional, Centro Democrático, Pacto Histórico and Dignidad y Compromiso.
