Mother of ‘Baby M’ Joins Group to Bar Surrogate Mothers

WASHINGTON —  A tearful Mary Beth Whitehead, who lost custody of “Baby M,” joined today with other surrogate mothers in a national coalition to ban what they called the “reproductive slavery” of parenting for pay.

The coalition, organizers said, will provide moral and legal support to women contemplating a surrogate-parenting contract, or trying to cope with the birth of a child under a surrogate arrangement.

Organizer Jeremy Rifkin said the group will also try to identify and unite “several hundreds” of past or present surrogates into a national support network.

The group will also press Congress for a law banning all commercial surrogate-parenting contracts, such as the $10,000 agreement which Whitehead failed to have thrown out in court earlier this year.

“Don’t let this happen to anyone. Please, it’s not right,” said a tearful Whitehead, 30, whose bitter trial in Hackensack, N.J., to retain custody of “Baby M” made her the nation’s best-known surrogate mother.