Maternity leave for surrogacy mothers uncertain

An Irish teacher who had a baby by a surrogate in California is suing the State and her school because she was refused maternity leave — but a legal opinion from the European Court of Justice did not offer her support.

However, a British woman bringing a similar case to the Luxembourg-based court was told in a legal opinion written by a different lawyer of the court that she and her surrogate were entitled to maternity leave, and to share it between them.

The case led to calls for surrogacy to be banned in Ireland while others called for maternity benefits to be extended to adoptive parents and parents by surrogacy.