By The Associated Press
A heated debate in Spain sparked by a 68-year-old celebrity who allegedly used a surrogate mother in Miami to have a baby girl, took a turn Wednesday when the woman announced in the social magazine Hello!
that
the girl is actually the daughter of her son, who died of cancer in 2020
.
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The actress and presenter Ana Obregón told Hello!
that doctors encouraged her son, Aless Lequio García, to keep sperm samples before starting treatment and that he expressed the wish to have a child just before he died.
The samples, she said, were stored in New York.
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Surrogate pregnancies are prohibited in Spain, although children from this type of pregnancy can be registered in other countries.
"This was Aless's last wish, to bring his son into the world," Obregón told the magazine.
"This girl is not my daughter, but my granddaughter."
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Initial reports about the baby drew the attention of the Spanish media and the country's political parties, prompting criticism from the left-wing coalition government.
Many prominent Spanish politicians and media refer to surrogacy as “womb rental”.
Actress Ana Obregón speaks to the media in Madrid, Spain, on February 3, 2023.Getty Images
The Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, of the leftist coalition United We Can, indicated that
surrogate pregnancies were a form of violence against women.
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which is part of the coalition government, said the law should be changed to prevent Spaniards from using surrogate mothers in other countries.
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But Defense Minister Margarita Robles refrained from criticizing Obregón on Wednesday, saying that although the law is clear in Spain, personal decisions must be respected.
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The conservative Popular Party (PP), the main opposition party, has said it
is open to discussing the legalization of such pregnancies if there is no payment involved.
At first, the fact that the matter was about Obregón, 68, seemed to generate as much controversy as the surrogacy itself.
Hello!
reported that the baby was born on March 20 and was conceived in June, when Obregón's son would have turned 30.
Obregón, a biologist by profession, is one of Spain's biggest celebrities and has appeared on many television shows and on magazine covers.
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