FOUR IRISH BABIES born through surrogacy in Ukraine have now been evacuated from the country.
The Journal understands that the newborns are all safe and well.
The Irish parents of the four babies, which includes a pair of twins, travelled to a neighbouring country where the infants were brought to meet them at the border.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it would not comment on specific consular cases.
Under normal circumstances, it can take several weeks for a baby born through surrogacy to be brought home to Ireland while documents are organised, but Irish officials have been working to minimise the length of time that the children spend in the country.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said earlier this week that there were four Irish babies in Ukraine who had been born through surrogacy in recent days.
“There are four Irish babies in Ukraine at the moment in a maternity hospital, and Kyiv and that hospital could be under Russian occupation within weeks,” Varadkar said, speaking to RTÉ News at One.
He said Ireland needs “to be able to talk to the Russians” in surrogacy situations and on behalf of Irish people in Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine is one of the most common home countries of surrogates who carry babies for parents in Ireland.
When the Department of Foreign Affairs first issued advice against travel to Ukraine, urging Irish citizens to leave the country, ahead of Russia’s invasion, concerns were raised for the wellbeing of surrogates and babies in Ukraine.
Sara Byrne, a spokesperson for campaign group Irish Families Through Surrogacy, previously told The Journal that it would be important to return newborns to Ireland as swiftly as possible.
She said it would be crucial to protect surrogates, who often travel to specific clinics to give birth, and for them to be enabled to return to their own families quickly.
Senator Mary Seery-Kearney said that parents expecting babies in Ukraine have been “very concerned for the surrogates”.
“These are women that they’re in contact with. It’s not that they’re strangers, they’ve had contact all the way through,” she said.
It is not known whether the surrogate mothers of the four babies evacuated from Ukraine in this case are still in the country.
Speaking in the Dáil this week, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said: “We have worked to help many families expecting babies through surrogacy in Ukraine who found themselves in an unimaginable situation and we will continue to do so.”
Labour Senator Rebecca Moynihan said she was concerned by reports that had not mentioned “the women in Ukraine who have given birth to those children or those who are pregnant or are having transfers in the middle of a war”.
“Ireland needs to have an arrangement whereby someone who has arranged surrogacy with an Irish family can be flown to Ireland and have medical bills guaranteed, maternal healthcare and living expenses over here,” Moynihan said.
“We need giving equal and ethical consideration to the impact of this on Ukrainian women and their families by helping them get out of a war zone at a very vulnerable time in their lives.”
In Ireland, while surrogacy is permitted, legislation has not specifically regulated it domestically or internationally.
Last week, Cabinet approved a long-awaited bill that legislates for surrogacy in Ireland. However, the bill does not include provisions for international surrogacy – something that legal experts said would be a necessity to protect the rights and safety of everyone involved in surrogacy.
Additional reporting by Christina Finn
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