Family First NSW Legislative Council candidate Lyle Shelton says that if elected next March he will fight attempts by the Nationals and the Greens to change surrogacy laws in ways that deliberately deprive children of their mothers.
Ahead of Mother's Day tomorrow, Mr Shelton said every child deserved the love of their mother wherever possible and warned against moves emerging from the NSW Parliament's inquiry into fertility treatment and surrogacy.
"No child should ever be intentionally made motherless," Mr Shelton said.
"Children tragically lose mothers through death, abandonment or family breakdown. But the law should never deliberately make it so on purpose to satisfy the lifestyle desires of adults."
Mr Shelton said proposals being canvassed by the NSW Upper House inquiry, established by Nationals MLC Sarah Mitchell and co-chaired by Greens MLC Amanda Cohn, would pave the way for expanded surrogacy access for same-sex couples.
"Tomorrow Australians will celebrate Mother's Day because we instinctively know mothers matter," he said.
"We must never create a society where some children are intentionally denied the love of their mother from birth because politicians think adult desires matter more than children's rights."
Mr Shelton said commercial and compensated surrogacy treated women and children as commodities.
"Surrogacy is inherently exploitative of vulnerable women because it turns pregnancy and childbirth into a commercial transaction," he said.
"It asks a woman to carry a child for nine months and then surrender the baby she has bonded with.
"But it is also exploitative of children because it deliberately severs the most important bond a newborn knows — the bond with his or her mother."
Mr Shelton rejected claims that opposition to surrogacy for two men was motivated by hatred.
"It is not homophobic to say children deserve their mother," he said.
"What is morally worse is deliberately engineering a child to be motherless in order to satisfy the emotional desires of adults.
"Children are not lifestyle accessories. They are not products to be commissioned through reproductive technology."
Mr Shelton said it was alarming that the Nationals — a party once associated with family values — was now partnering with the Greens on what he described as radical social engineering.
"The Nationals have lost their moral compass," he said.
"Family First will seek a seat in the Legislative Council to fight for the rights of children to be placed ahead of the demands of adults.
"Mother's Day should always mean something to every child in New South Wales.
"The law should protect motherhood, not erase it."
