A preschool teacher at a private Catholic school in New Jersey was recently placed on leave for her role as a gestational surrogate for a couple struggling to conceive.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” explains Jadira Bonilla, now 25 weeks pregnant. She had carried another child while working at a different Catholic school without issue, but says she was met with suspicion and judgment when she told her principal at St. Mary School in Vineland about her role as a surrogate. “The very first words that came out of his mouth were, ‘You’re renting your uterus?’” she recalls.
Now, she’s on leave while the school investigates whether surrogacy is a fireable offense. “I’m not committing a crime,” says Bonilla. "And I’m being punished as if I was, it’s hurtful.
A Teacher’s Choice
Bonilla says she was inspired into surrogacy after reading an article about a couple struggling with infertility. She got in touch with a local surrogacy agency, and a few years later she delivered a baby boy for another couple.
Now pregnant with that couple’s second child, Bonilla finds herself suspended for a “possible violation” of her contract.
According to school principal Steven P. Hogan, Bonilla is a “valued teacher” who “we hope will one day again teach in our school with the full understanding and acknowledgment of our faith which guides our educational principles.”
Nevertheless, he says that offering her uterus to a struggling couple could be in direct violation of Catholic doctrine on in vitro fertilization.
Bonilla, however, sees no moral conflict. "In my heart, I don’t see it any different than someone who needs a pacemaker or a prosthetic leg,” she stated. “It’s a form of science, so I don’t see the harm behind it.”
For Bonilla, acting as a surrogate is the ultimate fulfillment of the Catholic principles she holds dearest – compassion, empathy, caring for others.
The Catholic Church doesn’t exactly see things that way.
The Catholic View on Surrogacy
Catholic doctrine does not approve of surrogacy.
In 2024, Pope Francis decried the practice as “deplorable”, describing it as “a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”
Francis also called for a global ban on the practice, which he had previously called “uterus for rent” – a derision often used by surrogacy opponents. “A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” the pontiff stated. “Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”
Doctrine vs. Duty
Despite the school’s claim of contract violation, Bonilla argues surrogacy is not explicitly prohibited in the school’s handbook. She says she repeatedly asked for written evidence that her actions violated her contract, but neither the school nor the local diocese could provide it.
If she is fired, Bonilla fears the message it sends to countless families turning to IVF and surrogacy for help starting a family. “If they’re going to penalize me, then they’re going to have to penalize every female employee that has done IVF to conceive their own children, because it’s the same thing. They go hand in hand,” she insists.
Bonilla’s case highlights a growing tension between personal conviction and religious doctrine, between compassion for those struggling with infertility and the Catholic Church’s strict moral stance against IVF.
Should teachers in private, faith-based schools be held to the same standards of doctrine as clergy, or do they deserve the freedom to make personal medical choices without fear of losing their livelihood?
Is the school justified in defending Catholic principles, or is this an overreach into a woman’s private life?
For the couple, who desperately desire to expand their family with love, Ms. Bonilla most likely is "Saint-like". While she shares her compassion and love for life. Emotionally, this solemn act is a blessing. The Catholic Church, however, is an old "organization" which has changed slightly through the years, but being mired in dogma restricts its change. I pray that Pope Leo will lead to some positive change, I'd eat pizza with him.