Spain to reject registration of babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine

The Spanish embassy in Ukraine announced on Tuesday that the Spanish government had decided to begin rejecting registrations for babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine.

In the statement posted on Facebook, the embassy said that while a number of existing cases would be individually considered, "no new registration records of children born through the surrogate pregnancy technique can be authorised."

This is not the first instance of Spanish authorities cracking down on international surrogacy.

Back in August of last year, dozens of Spanish families who had children via surrogate mothers in Ukraine were blocked from returning home for up to 10 weeks, with the Spanish government citing concerns of medical malpractice and human trafficking.

One Spanish woman, Cristina Álvarez, who had a baby girl via surrogacy in Ukraine last year and was among those affected by the block, said circumstances had since grown worse.

"The situation is now much worse because when we arrived we all knew there were registration problems," she said.

Before, "people were going to register, but wouldn't receive a refusal. We already knew what we...