Judge orders surrogate mother to pay 150€ monthly maintenance to father

A court in Alicante has ordered a surrogate mother based in Mexico to pay 150 euro per month in child maintenance to an Alicante resident who is raising their two-year-old child.

The ruling, issued by the Family, Infancy and Capacity Section of the Alicante Court of First Instance No. 3, sets the monthly financial support obligation to cover ordinary expenses such as food, housing, clothing, and education for the child. The measure was requested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and is based on articles 154 and 158 of the Spanish Civil Code, which outline parental duties towards non-emancipated children.

The child was born in Mexico on 24th April 2024 and moved to Spain in January 2025. Since arriving in the country, the child has remained in the sole care of the father in Alicante province. Although the mother has had no in-person contact, court documents detail that she has called by telephone to enquire about the child’s well-being and legal status in Spain.

The judge rejected the father’s request to entirely strip the biological surrogate of her parental authority. Instead, the court suspended her exercise of those parental rights so that the father holds exclusive single-parent custody and care, with no set visitation or regular communication schedule for the mother.

Additionally, both parties are required to split extraordinary medical and educational costs equally. These include expenses not covered by the public healthcare system, such as orthopaedics, optometry, orthodontics, speech therapy, psychology, and physical rehabilitation.

The decision has become final after neither party appealed within the legally required timeframe. A previous ruling from the same court regarding paternity established that the child officially carries both the mother’s and father’s surnames, as required by Spanish Civil Registry law.