Civil Society Organisations ICASM, NFM, Urge Nigeria to Abolish Surrogacy

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Summary: On May 10, 2026, civil society organisations International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood and Naija Feminists Media urged the Nigerian government to abolish surrogacy in Nigeria. In a letter sent to the Senate president Godswill Akpbaio and other key stakeholders in the parliament, they noted that regulation of surrogacy in the country would only legitimise the exploitation of vulnerable Nigerian women.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood (ICASM) and Naija Feminists Media (NFM) have urged the Nigerian government to abolish surrogacy in the country. The CSOs sent a letter to the Nigerian senate on May 10, 2026, on why abolition is the only protection for surrogate mothers after a DUBAWA report revealed that the country intends to regulate “altrustic” surrogacy.

Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman (the surrogate mother) is paid to birth a baby with the intention of giving it to over to the person(s) who have paid for it. The practise is $27.9 billion industry with Nigeria becoming the second destination for international surrogacy globally. Increasingly, Nigerian surrogate mothers are lamenting of trauma, neglect, and severe medical conditions after the practice.

Although, Nigeria currently has no law on surrogacy, a bill, HB 1137, titled the Surrogacy Bill, 2024, has passed its second reading in the Nigerian House of Representatives. Sponsored by lawmaker Hon. Olamijuwonlo Ayodeji Alao-Akala, the bill seeks to prohibit commercial surrogacy (where birth payment is involved) but legitimises and regulate “altrustic” surrogacy where the surrogate is not paid for the child birth.

In the letter written to the Nigerian Senate, civil society organisations, ICASM and NFM, noted that passing HB 1137 into law will create a legal framework that enables the systematic exploitation of women. Drawing lessons from international countries such as India, Thailand, and Cambodia, the CSOs higlighted that regulating surrogacy would create a demand for economically vulnerable women to engage in the practise under the guise of ‘altruism.’

The CSOs further highlighted that HB 1137 fails to consider key realities in surrogacy which cannot be resolved by regulation such such as the psychological harm 67% of surrogate mothers experience, and the egg exploitation in the industry.

“HB 1137 does not explicitly address oocyte (egg) donation. This is a critical gap. The surrogacy

industry systematically extracts eggs from low-income women in the Global South, particularly

Black African, South Asian, and Southeast Asian women, to serve wealthy clients in the Global

North. This is reproductive eugenics,” the CSOs noted.

The organisations also highlighted the structural conflict that exists when regulatory frameworks for surrogacy are championed by lamakers like Hon. Alao-Akala who have benefited from the practice.

“When those who stand to gain from an industry are the same people designing the rules that govern it, the resulting framework will protect the industry, not the women it exploits,” the letter to the Senate reads in parts.

ICASM and NFM subsequently urged the Nigerian government to follow the abolishment recommendation of the United Nations expert on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem. They also recommended that Nigeria follow progressive pathways of countries like Italy who categorises surrogacy as human trafficking and criminalises it for citizens both locally and internationally.

Beyond writing to the Nigerian sentate, the organisations also sent copies of the letter to key parliamentary stakeholders including the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the sponsor of the bill Hon Alao-Akala, and the Gender Technical Unit at the National Assembly.