Dutch fundamentalist Protestant party SGP is sending two of its members to Rome this week to sign an international declaration aimed at banning surrogacy.

SGP MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen and MP Diederik van Dijk will be the first Dutch politicians to sign the so-called Casablanca declaration which was drafted last year in Morocco and which, according to the organisers, has been signed by “100 experts from 75 nationalities”.

Ruissen and Van Dijk say on the party website surrogacy is “not ok” and that it is an “inhumane practice wich harms vulnerable women and children”.

Surrogacy is legal in the Netherlands under specific circumstances and a draft law is currently in the works to improve the current legislation.

Parents would be given parental rights when the baby is still in the womb and parents can also advertise their wish for a surrogate, which is not allowed at the moment. The parties would also enter into a legal agreement in the presence of a lawyer.

According to Ruissen and Van Dijk many people dislike the practice but dare not voice their opinion. “We are condoning much silent grief for fear of aggressive lobbying, from the LGBTI lobby and others,” they said.

In 2019, the SGP also signed the Nashville statement which advocates traditional Christian values regarding marriage and sexuality and has a strong anti LGBTI slant.

The party, which has three MPs at present, is the most orthodox of the fringe Christian parties and its leader Chris Stoffer came under fire in the election campaign last year for joining a group of pro-life “vigilantes” at an abortion clinic in Rotterdam-Zuid.

The party believes the country should be governed ‘entirely on the basis of the ordinances of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures’ and does not think women should play an active role in politics.