Michigan Senate votes to overhaul state surrogacy law, allow paid contracts

Lansing — The Michigan Senate voted Tuesday to revamp the state's law on surrogacy, allowing for agreements, featuring compensation, between women who are willing to become pregnant and those planning to become parents.

Democrats who championed the proposals argued that Michigan needed to update its policies to match new technology and to do away with a criminal ban on paid surrogacy contracts, which made the state an outlier nationally.

But some Republican lawmakers blasted the bills, saying the measures would leave vulnerable women at risk of exploitation. At one point Tuesday, Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, argued in a speech on the Senate floor that the legislation "fundamentally redefines the family."

Senators in the state Capitol gave speeches on the bills for about an hour on Tuesday amid a national political discussion on in vitro fertilization. That national debate played out after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos can be considered children under Alabama law.

The main bills in the surrogacy package were approved in votes of 22-15, with two Republicans, Sens. Mark Huizenga of Walker and Jon Bumstead of North Muskegon, crossing over to join Democrats in support.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said the votes were the result of years of hard work.

"It is well past the time that our laws reflect the advancements in assisted reproductive technology that allow Michiganders to have the freedom of fulfilling their dreams of becoming parents and growing their families through surrogacy," Brinks said.

Speaking in the Senate, Brinks shared the story of Tammy and Jordan Myers of Grand Rapids, who used a surrogate to give birth to their twins. But because of Michigan's current law, Tammy and Jordan Myers had to formally adopt their twins, through a two-year legal process, to gain full parental rights.

"There is no good reason to continue subjecting families in our communities to this kind of stress and unnecessary legal hoops," Brinks said. "There is no good reason why parents like Tammy and Jordan should have to adopt their own babies."

The Michigan House has already approved the surrogacy bills, meaning they will likely soon head to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's for final signatures.

The proposals set up a legal framework and minimum standards for a "surrogacy agreement," which would be able to include "payment of compensation, support and reasonable expenses," according to the text of the bills. Those involved in a "surrogacy agreement" would have to be at least 21 years old and undergo a mental health consultation.

Earlier this month, before a Senate committee, state Rep. Samantha Steckloff, D-Farmington Hills, the lead sponsor of the new Michigan bills, said the state can't ignore recent court decisions that have "seriously imperiled reproductive health for families across the U.S."

The bills would update Michigan law to provide better access to fertility health care and safeguard parents whose babies are born through assisted reproduction, such as in vitro fertilization, Steckloff said in committee.

Steckloff herself is a breast cancer survivor.

"Due to chemotherapy, I, unfortunately, am unable to conceive naturally. But I was lucky. I was able to put off chemo by one month in order to go through IVF and egg harvesting so that one day, I might be able to have a family of my own," Steckloff said at a committee hearing on March 7.

Leah Zientek, who served as a surrogate for her friends, also testified in favor of the bills at a Senate hearing. Michigan's current policies are complicated and don't support parents, she told lawmakers.

"The biggest challenge that I experienced was fear and confusion caused by Michigan's unclear legal process," Zientek said at a hearing.

However, opponents of the bills, including Right to Life of Michigan, have criticized the proposed legislative language allowing for compensation to go to surrogates.

"Providing payment for services rendered turns the generous acts of being an altruistic surrogate into a money-making proposition which in turn creates a market that can and does exploit poor and vulnerable women," wrote Genevieve Marnon, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan, in her Senate committee testimony.

Albert, one of the Republican no votes, described the bills as a "revolutionary departure from the natural order" and contended their language attempted to provide a path to recognizing joint parents outside of marriage.

"These bills create whole new paths to parenthood," Albert said at one point.

"It doesn't matter what their relationship is, if they have one at all," he said. "Effectively, the order of a child-parent relationship, as it has existed since the dawn of mankind, is rewritten."

Albert spoke against the bills for about 24 minutes on Tuesday.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Hannah Mackay contributed.