In 2018, Jadira Bonilla, a preschool teacher in southern New Jersey, read a Buzzfeed article about infertility that moved her so deeply that she decided to volunteer to carry a child for someone else.
“I was sobbing my eyes out,” Ms. Bonilla, 35, recalled. “I was like, I wish there was something I could do. I talked to my husband and I said, ‘You know, I think it’s time for me to do this.’”
That same week, she emailed a surrogacy agency to offer her services.
Four years later, Ms. Bonilla gave birth to a healthy baby boy from the embryo of a couple she had signed a contract with. When the couple asked her last year to carry another baby, “I didn’t hesitate,” she said.
But 23 weeks into the pregnancy, on Sept. 12, Ms. Bonilla learned that she would be suspended from her current job as a kindergarten teacher at St. Mary, a Catholic school in Vineland, N.J. The reason, she says, was her surrogacy.
Steven P. Hogan, the school’s principal, confirmed in an email statement on Thursday that Ms. Bonilla had been placed on paid administrative leave.
He described Ms. Bonilla as 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.”
In an email to Ms. Bonilla shared with The New York Times, Mr. Hogan told her that she had been put on leave because of a “possible violation” of her contract, and that she would remain on leave while an investigation was completed.
Ms. Bonilla said that her employee contract did not explicitly prohibit gestational surrogacy. However, an employee handbook for the local Diocese of Camden says that conduct “contrary to the doctrines and teachings of the Catholic Church” can result in discipline or termination.
Ms. Bonilla said she had initially disclosed her plan to be a surrogate to Mr. Hogan during a conversation about health insurance. “The very first words that came out of his mouth were, ‘You’re renting your uterus?’ Ms. Bonilla recalled, adding: “And then he told me, ‘Well, you know, if you were to do that, you can’t work here.’”
“They’re basically investigating whether I can or cannot do with my body what I want,” said Ms. Bonilla, who is a practicing Catholic.
Mr. Hogan did not respond to questions about his comments to Ms. Bonilla.
In 2024, Pope Francis labeled surrogacy “despicable” and called for a universal ban on the practice because of its “commercialization” of pregnancy. Catholic teaching also prohibits in vitro fertilization, an increasingly common treatment that is frequently used in surrogacy.
Ms. Bonilla declined to disclose the payments she had received for her surrogate pregnancies, citing the terms of those contracts. But fees for such a pregnancy can range vary, sometimes exceeding $50,000 plus medical expenses, according to a Columbia Law School report and people looking for surrogates in recent years.
Ms. Bonilla said she believed that surrogacy aligned with the Catholic value of generosity. “In my heart, I don’t see it any different than someone who needs a pacemaker or a prosthetic leg,” she said. “It’s a form of science, so I don’t see the harm behind it.”
In 2014, St. Theresa, a Catholic elementary school in Kenilworth, N.J., fired Victoria Crisitello, an unmarried art teacher and toddler-room caregiver, who had told the school’s principal that she was pregnant when she requested a raise. Ms. Crisitello was dismissed for violating St. Theresa’s code of ethics, according to court documents.
After a long legal battle, the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with the school in 2023, finding that Ms. Crisitello’s firing had been protected under a religious exemption to the state’s anti-discrimination law, which otherwise prohibits employment discrimination based on pregnancy and marital status.
The New Jersey court decision was preceded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2020, which determined that federal anti-discrimination laws did not apply to teachers who provided religious instruction at church-run schools. Ms. Bonilla said she taught a religion class at St. Mary.
Rachel Laser, a lawyer and the president of the nonprofit organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed an amicus brief in Ms. Crisitello’s case, said such cases had become more common since the 2020 ruling. Ms. Laser said that while Ms. Bonilla’s suspension could be legal, it was “concerning” nonetheless.
“Religious freedom should never be weaponized and turned into a license to harm other people,” Ms. Laser said. “And religious freedom should not be wielded in a way that ignores protections that are put in place because of very real power dynamics in our society.”
The persistent expansion of religious exemptions to discrimination law, she said, could contribute to the erosion of other rights.
“What is it next?” Ms. Laser said. “If you find out that a teacher at a Catholic school whose job touches on religion is using birth control, is that going to be grounds for firing?”
Camille Baker is a Times reporter covering New York City and its surrounding areas.
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