By Alessio Tummolillo

India has banned foreign single parents and LGBT couples from seeking surrogate mothers in the country. 

What is known as “commercial surrogacy” has been a thriving part of India’s economy. But, in an act to try and lower “surrogacy tourism,” as it’s called, India has put into place a rule, posted on the home ministry’s website, that states if people want to come to India to have a surrogate child, they must be a "man and woman (who) are duly married and the marriage should be sustained at least two years."

This rule change has caused fertility clinics and gay rights activists to claim the regulation is “discriminatory.”

"Parenting is everybody's right and now we're withdrawing that right," Dr Rita Bakshi, the head of the International Fertility Centre in New Delhi, said to the Associated Foreign Press. "These rules are definitely not welcome, definitely restrictive and very discriminatory.”

One of the founding partners of Indian Surrogacy Law, Hari Ramasubramanian, said the new measures were brought forth without "proper consultation" and needed to be challenged in the courts.

He stated, "A lot of people who will be affected had seen India as a wonderful option for getting into parenthood and now this option is closed. It's quite sad.”