As France looks ahead to its 2027 presidential election, former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has thrust surrogacy back into the center of the country's political debate.
Attal, who announced his presidential bid in May and now leads President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, has called for a national debate on legalizing surrogacy, which remains prohibited under French law. He has openly linked the issue to his personal desire to have children with his partner, European Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, a former French foreign minister, through surrogacy.
The proposal places Attal at odds with Macron, who has repeatedly described the legalization of surrogacy as a "red line."
With Macron constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, Attal's position has emerged as one of the clearest bioethical dividing lines in the race to succeed him.
Cross-party opposition
Attal's promotion of surrogacy was met with widespread criticism from both sides of the French political aisle. Elected officials, including former French justice and health ministers, published a cross-party op-ed in which they expressed their opposition to "making women's bodies available to satisfy the desires of others."
This initiative was started by Aurore Bergé, minister for gender equality and a member of Attal's own party.
They also reject the notion that surrogacy offers a solution to declining birth rates, instead arguing that demographic challenges should be addressed through family support policies and adoption reform rather than what they describe as the commercialization of reproduction.
Matthieu Le Tourneur, a French jurist with Juristes pour l'Enfance, told EWTN News that such a public intervention from high-profile politicians would have been far less likely only a few years ago.
He sees this as evidence of a changing sociopolitical climate. While some polling suggests a narrow majority of French citizens support legalizing surrogacy, Le Tourneur noted that support becomes weaker when the issue involves same-sex couples. He also argued that public opinion has ceased moving in favor of surrogacy and may be shifting in the opposite direction, referencing growing activism from anti-surrogacy organizations.
Political hurdles and European implications
Le Tourneur said Attal's proposal should be viewed within a broader French political pattern in which successive presidents have pursued major societal reforms, pointing to the legalization of same-sex "marriage" under François Hollande, the expansion of IVF, and the proposed euthanasia bill under Macron. In his view, a future Attal presidency "would make the legalization of surrogacy the societal goal of his five-year term."
However, he noted that legalization would face significant political obstacles. "Opposition to surrogacy comes from both the left and the right," drawing criticism from feminists, anti-capitalists, and conservatives, he said. As a result, Attal would likely need support from extreme-left LGBTQIA+ factions, liberal centrists, and individual lawmakers willing to break with their parties.
Observers have noted that France's influence extends well beyond its borders, particularly on questions of culture and bioethics. In this context, Le Tourneur believes that any French move to legalize surrogacy would likely reverberate across Europe. He noted that legalization in France would almost certainly apply not only to heterosexual couples but also to same-sex couples and single individuals, potentially providing momentum to pro-surrogacy campaigners seeking similar reforms in other countries.
Organized resistance to surrogacy
Ludovine de La Rochère, president of Le Syndicat de la Famille, one of France's leading pro-family organizations, said Attal's endorsement of "ethical" surrogacy is partly an effort to distinguish himself in the 2027 presidential race.
Speaking to EWTN News, she explained that "it would be a humanitarian, social, and ethical disaster if France were to legalize" surrogacy. She noted that the practice is often "championed by LGBT organizations" and that supporters seek to normalize the matter culturally through "personal accounts in books, films, TV programs, and so on," gradually shaping public opinion outside the political arena.
According to de La Rochère, pro-surrogacy campaigners are shifting their efforts from legislative reform to international legal proceedings aimed at securing recognition of children born through surrogacy.
Looking across the continent, she noted that "Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovakia, and Poland" are strongly opposed to surrogacy while "Germany remains a country that could change its stance on this issue."
Despite this, de La Rochère said her organization is working with other nongovernmental organizations to push the European Union toward "an explicit condemnation of all forms of surrogacy." If Attal ultimately includes surrogacy in his presidential platform, she said large-scale public mobilization remains a possibility, although any response would depend on what strategy is judged most effective at the time.
Growing pressure
Attal's proposal comes amid growing international opposition to surrogacy. In her 2026 report, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem argued that surrogacy can expose women to exploitation, coercion, health risks, and psychological harm, while raising broader concerns about human dignity and the rights of women and children.
The issue has also gained momentum at the diplomatic level. On June 22, Italy, the Holy See, Chile, and Cameroon convened a side event at the U.N. Human Rights Council calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy as a first step toward its eventual abolition. The initiative followed separate condemnations of the practice by Pope Leo XIV and the Holy See earlier this year.
On June 29, Le Syndicat de la Famille, Juristes pour l'Enfance, and other anti-surrogacy advocates gathered in Geneva to argue that surrogacy constitutes a modern form of human trafficking and to advocate for a coordinated international response.
Taken together, these developments suggest that any effort to legalize surrogacy in France would likely face opposition not only from domestic political critics, including figures within Attal's own political camp, but also from an increasingly organized international coalition of governments, U.N. human rights experts, and civil society organizations.
