Gay Dutch PM Rob Jetten hires surrogate to carry baby, accused of skirting the law
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten and homosexual partner Nicolas Keenan announced in a joint Instagram post on October 19 that they are expecting a child via surrogate.
“Someone very special is on the way,” the two men announced. “See you in 2027, little one. There are no words big enough to thank our egg donor, our surrogate mum Lisa and both their families. None of this would be possible without you.” The post included a photo of the men holding a sonogram image, and another with the child’s mother standing in between them. They did not say which one of the men was the biological father of the child.
Jetten’s political party, the leftist D66, issued a statement assuring the public that nothing illegal had occurred. “There is no commercial surrogacy involved,” the party stated. “The surrogate mother and the egg donor are known to Jetten and Keenan. They are pleased to be able to help fulfil the wish of the two fathers-to-be to have a child in this way.”
Jetten added in his own statement: “We are incredibly grateful that, thanks to two wonderful women, we now have the opportunity to make our dream come true.” The two women Jetten was referring to are the woman who donated one of her eggs (the biological mother), and the woman who is currently gestating their child.
Lisa, the surrogate, stated, “Surrogacy feels like a very special way to help make the dream of our dear friends come true.”
While surrogacy itself is not illegal in the Netherlands, commercial surrogacy is. Businesses that arrange surrogacy agreements are prohibited, and those seeking to procure a surrogate are legally barred from public advertising for one, on social media or elsewhere (women also cannot advertise their availability for surrogacy services). The only payment permitted is reimbursement in private arrangements.
Jetten, however, appears to have broken the law. In a public interview last year when talking about his relationship with Keenan, he told a journalist, “We hope to be able to have a child after that too, but it is true that isn’t so easy with two men. So we need a little help with that, and we hope we can find a surrogate mother.” In their coverage of Monday’s announcement, Dutch broadcaster EenVandaag noted that Jetten “was treading on the edge of the law” when he said that “they were looking for a surrogate mother.” Another Dutch outlet noted:
In the magazine Margriet, Jetten stated a few months later that women had come forward to help after the broadcast, but that he wanted to get married first and was in no rush. FVD MP Gideon van Meijeren reacted fiercely to X at the time: “Women are not baby factories, pregnancy is not a service, and a child is not a product!” He spoke of “deep selfishness and disrespect”.
Jetten is currently supporting a bill that would rewrite the Dutch laws on surrogacy to help LGBT people procure children. “In the Netherlands, we are introducing new legislation to better protect trans people,” he told an LGBT press outlet. “And to ensure that gay and lesbian couples who want to start a family have easier access to surrogacy.” Judges and advocates have responded by highlighting the risk of “exploitation, child trafficking, and threatened identity development.”
Jetten referred to the unborn child as “a little one,” but he is an avowed pro-abortion extremist. In a public debate with my colleague Maaike Rosendal two years ago, he admitted that he supports abortion until birth. In short, he believes in the right to destroy children in the womb who look just like the one in the sonogram image he is celebrating. In leftist ideology, children can be both disposed of—and commodified, depending on the desires of adults.
