Four surrogates share their views on the surrogacy discourse

Surrogacy has become a subject of renewed national conversation in the United States in recent weeks, prompting the Guardian to speak with four surrogates across the country about how they view the debate surrounding the practice.

The renewed attention followed two high-profile developments: the announcement that Lena Dunham used a surrogate to start a family, and an ongoing legal dispute involving McKenna West, a gestational surrogate who relocated to Texas to avoid an abortion requested by the child's biological parents.

Both cases have drawn wider public scrutiny to commercial, or compensated, surrogacy, placing a practice that had largely remained a private matter for families into a broader public and legal conversation.

In speaking with surrogates directly, the Guardian sought to capture perspectives from within the surrogacy community on how it feels to have their experiences and choices discussed as part of a national, and increasingly global, debate.

The accounts reflect a range of perspectives on surrogacy amid the ongoing public discourse, though specific details of each surrogate's individual experience were not included in the initial report.