Court forces homophobic surrogate to give baby to gay couple

A UK high court has forced a woman to live up to her surrogacy agreement and hand over her baby to a gay couple.

The woman claimed that she and the biological father had agreed in 2013 for her to be the “main parent and carer” of the child.

The man and his partner disputed this and insisted that she had agreed that they would be the primary parents and that she would only “play a role” in the child’s upbringing.

After their agreement broke down, the mother went to the hospital to give birth without telling the father. When the little girl was just a few weeks old, the battle over who would raise her went to court.

In her judgement published this week, Ms Justice Alison Russell sided with the gay couple and slammed the woman for lying and using homophobic language in her testimony.

She accused the mother of manipulating the father to have a child and then trying to discredit the gay couple “in a homophobic and offensive manner” by describing them as sexually promiscuous.

Russell ruled that the woman “deliberately misled the father and his partner about her intentions or changed her mind as the pregnancy progressed”, and described the gay couple as “clearly devoted to each other”.

The judge ordered the child to live with the two men and further ruled that the mother will only be able to see the girl under supervision.

“I conclude that the father is the parent who is best able to meet the girl’s needs both now and in the future,” said Russell.

“It is he who has shown that he has the ability to allow her to grow into a happy, balanced and healthy adult and it is he who can help her to reach her greatest potential.”

The judge ruled that the names of those involved cannot be published.