Wombs for rent
In this article published earlier this year in Marie Claire, reporter Abigail Haworth tells us the story of the Akanksha Infertility Clinic, located in a small Indian city called Anand. For the past three years, foreigners have been coming to the clinic in order to find women who will carry and give birth to their children. According to Haworth’s story, “Surrogate Mothers: Womb for Rent,” surrogacy in India costs about $12,000 – about one-fifth of the cost in the United States. Forty-five women are on the list to serve as surrogates. During the time of the interviews, 27 were pregnant and scheduled to receive compensation of about $5,000 to $7,000. That’s a lot of money in a country where many people earn less than $1 a day.
The women who
apply to be surrogates say they’re looking for ways to feed their own families. One of the women bearing a child for an American couple is 30-year-old
Rubina Mondal, who decided to become a surrogate in order to pay for her
8-year-old son’s medical care (the boy has a hole in his heart). Karen and
Thomas, the Los Angeles couple who contracted with Mondal to carry and give
birth to their child, called her every week during the pregnancy. In addition
to the fee, the couple paid for a two-bedroom apartment for Mondal’s family and
sent packages with gifts and toys for Mondal and her sons. In the weeks before
the baby’s birth, Karen flew to India and lived with her baby’s surrogate
mother. “Karen became my sister,” Mondal told the reporter.