By Solène Tadié 

The recent appointment of Olivia Maurel, a self-declared feminist and atheist born of surrogacy, as spokeswoman for the Casablanca Declaration for the Universal Abolition of Surrogacy, has come to highlight a new phenomenon in the West. 

Indeed, while her decision to join a group whose initiators are for the most part committed Christians may have come as a surprise to most observers, it is nevertheless not unrelated to the split observed in progressive circles over the last decade, as issues such as gender theory, surrogate motherhood, pornography and prostitution have blurred the usual ideological dividing lines. 

Does this mean that the radical nature of the new left, and the passing under the yoke of the cancel culture, has driven many progressives of yesterday into the arms of their previous adversaries? 

The perspectives of some prominent feminists, while guarding against any simplistic diagnoses, certainly offer convincing food for thought when it comes to reading and understanding the civilizational dilemma currently facing the Western world.

The Game-Changer of Wokeism and Transgenderism

The root of the ideological fragmentation on the left can be traced back to the early 2010s, notably with the emergence of the woke movement, originally defined as an alertness to racial discrimination and prejudices, which has come to encompass various progressive currents whose social demands now revolve more broadly around gender as well as racial issues. 

The emergence of this movement was set against the backdrop of the continuing expansion of the LGB (Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual) movement that originated in the 1980s. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that the letter T was added (for transgender), followed by the Q (for “queer,” referring to a questioning of one’s sexual identity), and the + sign (for those who identify with this community but don’t relate to any of the letters of the acronym) after the 2010s. 

This step, which marks a break with the traditional conception of anthropology and biology as the basis of sexual identity, has given rise to considerable antagonism within the historical left, especially in feminist movements that have seen this blurring of genders as a new threat to women’s rights. 

“These progressive movements that lost touch with reality have divided a whole part of the left; there are feminists who are no longer heard of because of these movements that have been brought to the fore, making a minority the majority,” Olivia Maurel told the Register. “The same logic applies to so-called transgender children, who are injected with doses of hormones without really knowing what it does to them. We spread these ideologies out of fear of hurting small minorities, without worrying about the consequences.”

This marginalization from public debate of some of the intellectuals of the traditional left, mainly feminists, is the result of one of the corollaries of these flourishing ideologies, the so-called cancel culture, which consists of ostracizing — via the media or social networks — people or institutions for acts or words deemed offensive by proponents of this “neo-progressivism.” 

Leading feminist figures have often incurred the wrath of this new political correctness, most notably British writer J.K. Rowling, who has repeatedly asserted that transgender women are biological males and therefore are not women.

In Sweden, the renowned feminist activist Kajsa Ekis Ekman, author of On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts About the New Definition of Woman,has also become a target of these same progressive movements, which regularly prevent her from speaking at public events because of her opposition to gender theory, which she deems to have been particularly harmful to women.

“Instead of telling us women that we are second-class citizens who ought to be quiet and stay in the kitchen, this new movement told us we were privileged, so we had to move aside and give space to women who are more oppressed than us, and who are, in fact, men,” Ekman told the Register, lamenting that “many women have fallen for it” for the sake of being “kind.”

“Speaking of women’s issues, having woman-only gatherings or even mentioning the word ‘woman,’ has become offensive to these groups, so we had to rename ourselves ‘cis-women,’ which, in oppression hierarchy, means something akin to a millionaire.”

The triumph of cancel culture in recent years, at a time she considers to be “a crossroad” for humanity, represents for Ekman an opportunity for ad hoc alliances between feminist, religious, conservative and Marxist groups — traditionally incompatible, but converging on issues ranging from gender theory to prostitution or surrogacy. 

“I have spoken at many Christian conferences, and some of the best activists against trafficking in women today are Christians. They do great work; for example, the Hermanas Oblatas in Spain. They have saved many lives,” she said. 

This approach is similar to that of French activists Marguerite Stern, a former member of the radical women’s activist organization Femen, and Dora Moutot. Pilloried in recent years for their work against transgender ideology and banned from public debate, these “gender-critical” feminists have found refuge in conservatively oriented publications to deliver their reflections on the rifts caused by these new ideologies.

The Stumbling Block of Surrogacy

But it is also on the highly controversial issue of surrogate motherhood that the left has been torn apart, with leading feminist figures such as English radical writer Julie Bindel and Sylviane Agacinski, the famous French philosopher whose writings have appeared in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in recent years, being fiercely opposed to this practice. In 2023, 500 leading figures on the Italian left also signed a petition condemning its use.

The new alliance of expedience that this theme has brought to fruition is attracting public attention, especially through the many talks given by the charismatic Maurel on behalf of the Casablanca Declaration. She herself claims to have been encouraged to broaden her intellectual horizons by the acquired conviction that the question of human dignity can transcend all ideological divides.

“Since, for me, surrogacy is a form of slavery, I’m reading a lot about the whole history of slavery, particularly in the U.S., and I’m surprised to find that it was mainly the Democrats who supported this practice in the 19th century,” she said.

“All this made me go beyond binary approaches, and I’m full of hope when I see how much people can stick together around the issue of human dignity,” she continued, commenting that “whatever our position on the political, ideological or religious spectrum, we all agree that a body cannot be sold, that a human being is not an object and cannot be reduced to a contract.”

Welcomed by Catholics ‘With Open Arms’ 

Last April, Pope Francis granted a private audience to Maurel and other members of a delegation from the Casablanca Declaration. 

Accustomed to meetings at the highest levels of states and institutions, Maurel paid tribute to what she considers a man of rare intelligence. 

“The Pope is to date the only man I met who really knows the subject, the surrogacy market, the mother-child bond, and who has respect for human dignity rooted in the very depths of his being. I was amazed,” she recounted. 

She also recalled admitting to the Holy Father that she disagreed with 95% of what the Catholic Church teaches, yet promised him that no ideological obstacle would prevent her from uniting her voice with his to fight essential battles like that of surrogate motherhood. 

The Holy Father’s open-mindedness reflected, in her view, her interactions with the entire Catholic world, which she says welcomed her “with open arms,” starting with the Catholic members of the Casablanca Declaration team.

Building Bridges 

It’s still too early to tell if these occasional rapprochements are of sufficient magnitude to have a lasting influence on the Western intellectual and societal landscape and break down the wall of cancel culture. And this assumption is already nuanced by the stubborn reluctance of many feminists to align themselves with any Christian or conservative group, whatever the ideological pressures of the new progressivism.

In 2021, during a demonstration in opposition to the holding of a fair promoting surrogacy in Paris, most feminist associations had refused to mingle with the La Manif Pour Tous (“Union for the Family”) movement, which was behind the sizable demonstrations and actions opposing the legislation that authorized same-sex civil marriage in France in 2012. Instead, they stationed themselves a few meters away. 

Indeed, these activists consider the right to abortion to be of equal importance to the prohibition of any form of contract around a woman’s body, as Ana Deram, co-president of the feminist association CIAMS (International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy) explained in an interview with the Register. 

“Feminists or associations who agree to fight battles with Christian or conservative groups are often harshly attacked by their peers because they infer that they will end up agreeing to fight against the practice of abortion, which is false most of the time,” Deram said, clarifying that she was speaking on her own behalf and not that of her association. 

While her childhood in communist Romania has made her averse to ideological sectarianism herself, her experience as a feminist activist has revealed a surprising lack of homogeneity within communities and movements. 

This is also illustrated, she believes, by the normalization of surrogacy by a section of the progressive Catholic press, notably in France through the daily newspaper La Croix and the Jesuit magazine Etudes. 

The same heterogeneity that characterizes feminist movements today represents in her view an opportunity, if not for alliance, then at least for fruitful dialogue, provided this is based on an awareness and mutual respect for the philosophical differences existing between the various sides. 

This strategy forms the basis of L’Osservatore Romano’s monthly supplement Women Church World, which takes a feminist Catholic stance and sees itself as a laboratory of ideas open to all sensibilities and creeds. For its coordinator, Italian journalist Rita Pinci, the Church is by nature a powerful vector for the advancement of women through its social, charitable and educational commitment. 

“Our mutually critical dialogue can be enriching and stimulating for both sides, while also promoting a deeper understanding of social-justice issues,” she told the Register, adding that she sees these alliances as “an opportunity to build bridges between worlds that, although different, can come together for common causes.”

These reflections by feminists from a variety of backgrounds, do call for a nuanced view of the new socio-political realities. They nevertheless suggest that the Catholic Church, with its political neutrality and tireless defense of human dignity, could in future be strengthened in its vocation as a contact point between actors of goodwill on both the right and the left. This could be particularly true in the face of the major new ethical challenges facing the world, such as artificial intelligence and transhumanism. 

This story was first published by National Catholic Register, EWTN Norway’s news partner.