The United States is the country most turned to by Spaniards who opt for surrogacy and who cannot do so in Spain because it is an illegal practice. There are several celebrities from the Spanish ecosystem who have had a family through this route, such as Miguel Bosé, Baroness Thyssen or Javier Cámara. A high-profile case is that of Ana Obregón, who is the mother of a girl born via surrogacy and conceived with the frozen sperm of her son, Aless Lequio, who died of cancer in 2020. Cámara, very reluctant to talk about his private life, reflected on the La 2 program La Matemática del Espejo on the criticism of his choice to become a father: "I can't say anything to them, I mean, they have every right. I'm not going to change anyone's way of thinking. I know how it was, it was magic, and my children not only have one family, they have more families and one that is very close even if it is very far away. And it is a difficult thing to explain, it is complex. I understand that it is a complicated subject and I cannot tell them anything else."
"Oh, no, another fallen idol": can one be a feminist and opt for surrogacy?
The use of surrogate mothers has become a common practice in Hollywood
BarcelonaNaomi Campbell, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Kidman, Lily Collins, Michelle Williams, Kim Kardashian, Amber Heard, Lucy Liu, Elton John and Ricky Martin are just some of the celebrities who have turned to surrogacy to have a family. Recently, singer Lady Gaga and television creator Lena Dunham have also joined this practice, which is illegal in Spain, both supposedly aligned with feminist ideas, but who, when it came to starting a family, chose a path condemned by a large part of the women's rights movement. Although they are not the first to opt for surrogacy, they are two of the celebrities who have been most harshly criticized for doing so. Many of their followers have understood the use of another woman's body to gestate, a process that is usually accompanied by a financial transaction, as a sign of vital contradiction.
singer Lady Gaga and television creator Lena Dunham, both supposedly aligned with feminist ideas, but who, when it came to starting a family, chose a path condemned by a large part of the women's rights movement. Although they are not the first to opt for surrogacy, they are two of the celebrities who have been most harshly criticized for doing so. Many of their followers have understood the use of another woman's body to gestate, a process that is usually accompanied by a financial transaction, as a sign of vital contradiction.
In mid-September, Lena Dunham announced through Vogue magazine that she and her husband, Luis Felber, had become parents through surrogacy. The post that the publication made on Instagram with a photo of Dunham and her family was filled with negative comments, especially from Spanish and Catalan users, some of whom are well-known such as Juliana Canet, Greta Fernández, or Andrea Gumes. "Oh, no, another fallen idol," noted the illustrator Lyona, while another user, Sara Serrano, known on social media as Sara Birds, called for "not normalizing the buying of humans." Dunham, who is forty years old and is best known for having created the series Girls, has struggled with health problems for much of her life. She suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder. Furthermore, in 2017 she underwent a total hysterectomy (the surgical removal of the uterus and cervix) due to severe endometriosis. This intervention entails the cessation of menstruation and the impossibility of becoming pregnant. Using the argument of health problems as a justification for choosing surrogacy does not convince Dunham's fans either, who have reminded her that the possibility of adoption also exists. Curiously, the actress and screenwriter has a long history of adoption regarding her multiple pets, but when it came to wanting to have a family, she did not choose this option.
Lady Gaga can also cite health problems to justify the use of a surrogate mother. In the Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, she shared the physical and psychological suffering caused by fibromyalgia and, through tears, wondered if she would ever be able to give birth with this illness. The singer of Born this way, forty years old, finished her The Mayhem ball tour this April, which began in July 2025 and has been one of the most successful and demanding of her career. In mid-September, some paparazzi captured a photograph of her with a baby on her neck. Her fiancé, the tech entrepreneur Michael Polansky, 42, also appeared in the image. Many fans speculated on social media that Gaga had hidden her pregnancy, which is unlikely considering she finished the tour in April and the baby did not look like a newborn. Days later, American media confirmed that the couple had used a surrogate mother and that the baby had been born in June.
Can one be a feminist and choose surrogacy?
Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham are not the only theoretically feminist figures who have surprised by choosing surrogacy. One of the most controversial cases is that of the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of the book We Should All Be Feminists. At 47 years old, the author, who has a first daughter gestated by herself, became a mother of twins through surrogacy (one of the babies died this year while receiving medical care in a hospital in Lagos). Adichie has publicly defended her decision and argues that surrogacy can be done ethically, although she is aware that it can also be a dehumanizing practice. The author, who explained that the pregnancy of her first daughter caused her a creative block, assured that she hoped the debate generated by her choice would serve so that "more women feel less ashamed to talk about how to reach motherhood through non-traditional paths".
Although it is most common to justify the use of surrogacy for medical reasons, there are also those who cite work-related reasons. This is the case of actress Lucy Liu, who in 2020 announced that she was the mother of a child born through surrogacy. "It seemed like the right option for me because I was working and I didn't know when I would be able to stop. I decided that it was probably the best solution for me, and the result has been fantastic," explained Liu in an interview with People. The actress claimed to feel proud of her motherhood "via a non-traditional path", a concept that Adichie also uses.
"When you are in a position of privilege, you have a lot of money and for whatever reason you don't want or can't experience a pregnancy yourself, surrogacy enters through the front door and, many times, morals and ethics slip out the window," explains Elena Crespi, author of the book The Baby Business. Surrogacy (Raig Verd). The psychologist remarks that for feminists who do not support surrogacy, it is "very shocking" that two such well-positioned figures have made this choice. "Perhaps it would be good for them to consider what kind of example they want to be," she argues. However, she admits that there are feminists who do support surrogacy because "they start from the premise that the surrogate mother has the right to decide what to do with her body and what to do with her baby". Crespi reminds us that usually, surrogate mothers sign contracts that, in most cases, take away their rights.
Beyond the feminist perspective, the psychologist points out that the debate on surrogacy forces us to reflect on the type of society we want to be. "Do we want a society in which, just by having money, one can make a person who has less carry a baby that, no matter how much we romanticize it, will end up being handed over as if it were a commodity?", asks Crespi, who believes that what should be done is to improve the conditions for adoptions.
The psychologist draws a parallel between surrogacy and the sale of organs, an illegal practice. "Who exposes themselves to the sale of an organ? The most precarious people. If I have a well-off life, I won't even consider it. The sale of organs is illegal because precarious people would be driven to do the unthinkable to earn money with their bodies. For me, surrogacy is comparable because in most cases, those who offer to be a surrogate mother are women in precarious situations", she argues.
The North American view
While the news about Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham has sparked controversy in the Spanish state, in the United States there has been no moral debate whatsoever regarding their decision. There, it is a mostly legalized practice and, in fact, in Hollywood, it is very common to resort to it. Very often, the surrogates are women in vulnerable situations and, as a recent CBS report revealed, it is common for couples who want to become parents to be able to initiate different surrogacy processes simultaneously.
In the United States, surrogacy legislation is not federal, but rather depends on each state. On one hand, there are those known as surrogacy-friendly states, that is, those states with legislation favorable to this practice and which, as a general rule, allow access to all kinds of families. Depending on the state, it can be an altruistic surrogacy or one with an economic component. In this group are states such as California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Pennsylvania, or Connecticut. California, where Hollywood is located, is considered the reference state regarding this practice. The states that place the most obstacles on surrogacy are Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, and Nebraska. The average price of a surrogacy process in some states of the United States is between 110,000 and 200,000 euros.
However, the North American system is far from perfect. In an article in The New Yorker, journalist Ava Kofman pointed out the lack of regulation to which surrogacy agencies are subjected. "No specific qualifications are required for the intimate and unpredictable task of bringing strangers together to create a new life (Only one state, New York, requires a specialized license.)," she explains. And she adds: "In fact, using an agency is completely optional. You can hire a surrogate mother –or several at once– and negotiate the terms practically on your own".
While Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham announced that they had become mothers through surrogacy, a case of surrogate motherhood made headlines in the country's media after ending up in court in a battle for the baby's custody. A surrogate mother from Alaska hired by a couple from California refused to have an abortion after a medical test revealed that the baby had a heart condition. The legal agreement that the parties had signed specified that if the fetus had any problem or malformation, the surrogate had to have an abortion if the future parents requested it. The surrogate traveled to Texas, where in August she gave birth to the baby, who underwent open-heart surgery. A judge in California and another in Texas have granted custody and the right to make medical decisions to the contracting couple. Meanwhile, the surrogate mother has claimed custody of the child and has appealed to the Supreme Court, which has refused to intervene.