What’s Current: Ukrainian women bound by commercial surrogacy forced to give birth in war zone

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  • Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing mothers to give birth in improvised “maternity units” in bomb shelters. Some of these women are surrogate mothers bound under contract, forced to remain in their war-torn country to give birth to foreigners’ babies, or face legal issues if they flee to neighboring countries that ban commercial surrogacy.
  • Women in Guatemala can receive up to 10 years in prison for having an abortion after lawmakers increased the sentence for the already-outlawed procedure.
  • A London court rules that police violated the rights of activists who organized a March 2021 vigil for Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a police officer. At the time, London’s police used COVID social-distancing rules to force campaigners to cancel the outdoor vigil.
  • A NHS-funded LGBT clinic is promoting prostitution as a way to pay for medical transition in resources targeting trans-identified females.
Meghan McCarty

Meghan McCarty is an undergraduate student and aspiring journalist living in the United States.