Latest news with #MichiganFamilyProtectionAct
CBS News
04-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Here's what to know about the new Michigan Family Protection Act
The Michigan Family Protection Act went into effect on Tuesday, ending the criminalization of surrogacy in the state. Rachel Lang's journey to motherhood wasn't easy. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at 26 years old, just nine months after getting married. "It wouldn't have been safe for me to carry a child. That's when we had decided to explore other options," said Lang. Those options included surrogacy, where her embryos would be implanted in a gestational carrier in the hopes of having a child. Typically, that step wouldn't have been an issue, except in Michigan. "It was the only state where it was still a felony, and it was the first state where surrogacy became a felony, and it was the last state for surrogacy to be a felony," said Ginanne Brownell, communications and research director for Michigan Fertility Alliance. Brownell spent years working to push the nine-bill package that went into effect on April 1, officially repealing a ban that made Michigan the only state in the nation to criminalize surrogacy contracts. The bill also offers legal protections for families that are created through assisted reproduction, like Lang's, who has waited nearly two years to formally adopt her biological daughter, Delaney. "Surrogacy now is legal; it can be done in Michigan. Surrogacy can be compensated, and there can be contracts that protect everybody involved in the process," said Brownell. Lang said they await Delany's new birth certificate with their names on it after her adoption was finalized last week. With the Family Protection Act officially the law of the land, Lang hopes other hopeful parents have an easier experience welcoming their bundles of joy.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Surrogacy ban in Michigan lifted with new Family Protection Act
The Brief The 1988 Surrogate Act in Michigan outlawed surrogacy contracts. The Michigan Family Protection Act went into effect Tuesday, repealing the ban. A surrogacy advocate originally from Michigan spoke about what this means for aspiring parents. FOX 2 - For the first time in 37 years, it's no longer a crime to enter into a surrogacy contract in Michigan. The backstory The 1988 Surrogate Act in Michigan effectively sought to legally end surrogacy in Michigan. Under this now-repealed law, aspiring parents could not enter into a contract with a surrogate or pay a woman to be a surrogate. Now, all that has changed, opening up new possibilities for families. "When Julie, our surrogate, gave birth to my children she also gave birth to me as a mother," said Ginanne Brownell. Her dreams of having a family she says, were made possible because of a surrogate who carried her children. "It was incredible to have this connection with somebody who was doing this because she wanted to help create a family," she said. Brownell, originally from Michigan, had unexplained infertility. And like so many women, when she tried to take advantage of surrogacy in Michigan she realized that wasn't possible. "I was shocked and I was surprised, but in the end we decided to work with a surrogate in Illinois and my twins were born in 2018." On Tuesday the Michigan Family Protection Act took effect. This new legislation repealed the 1988 Surrogate Parenting Act- decriminalizing and legalizing compensated surrogacy contracts in the state. There is still surrogacy that's been happening prior to Tuesday when the law took effect, but it appears the law now allows for some sort of formalized agreement between the surrogate and the parents. "Yes you did have surrogacy in Michigan, but it was sort of under the table in a sense, it depended on where you lived," Brownell said. "It was a very complicated, sort of Frankenstein system and it wasn't fair." Michigan's new law allows intended parents to be recognized from birth, requires surrogates to meet age, birth, and health standards, and mandates independent legal counsel for all parties. "The intended parents are legally protected, the surrogates are legally protected, the children born through surrogacy are legally protected," she said. The law is also a "parentage law" in that any child born through assisted reproduction in the state will know who their parents are from birth, which is especially significant for children born to sex couples. The Source Information for this report is from the Michigan Family Protection Act and an interview with Ginanne Brownell.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Incredible victory' MI lifts ban on paid surrogacy, clears barriers
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — For decades, Michigan's anti-surrogacy policies have been among the nation's most restrictive. It was a felony to pay a surrogate to carry an embryo, and couples fortunate enough to secure an uncompensated surrogate were often required to formally adopt their own biological children after birth. It was 2019 when Target 8 first introduced you to a that was forced to endure the costly and invasive process of adopting their twins, created through in vitro fertilization, from the gestational surrogate who carried them on the couple's behalf. W. MI parents denied legal rights to their babies due to outdated law In the years since, a grassroots effort led by parents who endured the state's antiquated policies has pushed hard for change. On Tuesday, their efforts paid off when the Michigan Family Protection Act went into effect. The act lifted the ban on paid surrogacy and removed barriers for couples who want to grow their families through IVF and gestational surrogacy. In many cases, medical conditions preclude the parents from carrying an embryo to term, making gestational surrogacy their only option to produce children. Michigan the 'worst' for couples seeking surrogacy Nine bills comprise the act, which also makes it easier and less costly to ensure proper recognition of parentage at birth. 'This is an incredible victory for all Michigan families formed through assisted reproduction, including IVF and surrogacy and for LGBTQ+ families,' said Stephanie Jones, founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance, a leader in the push to modernize the state's outdated surrogacy stance. 'With this law, all Michigan families will now have equitable access to safe and secure parent-child relationships, and our state will have legal safeguards for family building through surrogacy, protecting all involved — parents, children and surrogates.' legalize and regulate paid surrogacy and ensure fair compensation and legal representation for gestational surrogates, according to a news release from the Office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Fighting for surrogacy in MI, couples share their infertility stories 'The package repeals an unjust ban that made Michigan the only state in the nation to criminalize surrogacy contracts, and better protects surrogates, parents and children so that more Michiganders have the support they need to start a family,' said Whitmer in the release. 'The Michigan Protection Act takes common sense, long overdue action to repeal Michigan ban on surrogacy, protect family formed by IVF, and ensure LGBTQ+ parents are treated equally.' To act as a gestational surrogate, a woman must be at least 21 years old, have given birth at least once, undergone comprehensive medical and mental health screening and been assigned an independent lawyer to ensure their rights are protected. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tuesday will mark the end of criminalized surrogacy in Michigan
Starting Tuesday it will no longer be a crime to enter into a surrogacy contract in Michigan. The Michigan Family Protection Act will go into effect April 1, officially repealing a ban that made Michigan the only state in the nation to criminalize surrogacy contracts, with supporters of the legislation saying it also provides long overdue legal safeguards for families formed through assisted reproduction. Among them is Ginanne Brownell, the communications and research director for the Michigan Fertility Alliance, which advocated for the nine-bill package that also strengthens the rights of children born through surrogacy in arenas such as inheritance and access to their own birth certificates. 'I think it's really important that we change the narrative around surrogacy,' Brownell told the Michigan Advance. 'I think the problem is that for such a long time we've talked about these misconceptions of who surrogates are in the U.S.' Brownell, who has unexplained infertility, said when she decided to utilize surrogacy, she was surprised to find that there were no agencies willing to work with her in Michigan because of the 1988 Surrogate Parenting Act, which prohibited compensated surrogate parentage contracts. After finding a surrogate in Illinois who delivered her twins in 2018, Brownell started researching the history Michigan has played in surrogacy. 'Michigan was pivotal to surrogacy across the globe for many, many reasons. The first compensated surrogacy contract in the world was signed in Dearborn in 1976. Noel Keane was the lawyer in that,' Brownell said. In 1986, she said Keane helped arrange a contract for a New Jersey couple whose embryos were implanted in a surrogate, resulting in the world's first child born through a gestational surrogate in Ypsilanti. However, that same year a child born through a surrogacy contract arranged by Keane made international headlines when the surrogate mother refused to honor the contract and fled to Florida with the child, sparking a legal battle that spotlighted the ethical implications of surrogacy. The so-called Baby M case resulted in the 1988 ban on compensated surrogacy in Michigan. 'And that's where the law stayed for almost 40 years,' Brownell said, adding that she was introduced to Stephanie Jones, the founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance while she was working on her book, 'Elusive Mommyhood: An Investigative Reporter's Personal Journey into IVF and Surrogacy'. 'She had her daughter born through surrogacy as well. We both realized we were really passionate about this, and so we both kind of decided, 'Hey, let's try and change the law', Brownell said. After her twins were born in 2018, Brownell, who works in London while maintaining her residency in Michigan, told the Advance she had an opportunity to interview Gretchen Whitmer as she campaigned for governor. 'Because my kids had just been born, I was back in Michigan for several months waiting for their passports to be issued,' Brownell said. 'And so I was explaining this to her and she said, 'Why is that? That's so weird,'and so we both spoke about it briefly and she said, 'Well, that's something that should be changed' and I was like, 'Yeah, it should be.'' Brownell said she reflected on that conversation when Whitmer signed the legislation into law, which she was present for. 'It felt like it came full circle that we'd had this conversation about changing the law and here we were in the same room where she signed it into law and I had been a part of that,' Brownell said. The process to get the law changed included testimony from parents across Michigan who related their stories of infertility and frustration at the barriers Michigan had enacted to starting their families. Among those testifying was state Rep. Samantha Steckloff (D-Farmington Hills), sponsor of the main bill in the package, who said that as a breast cancer survivor, she was unable to conceive naturally due to the chemotherapy treatments she underwent. 'But I was lucky I was able to put off chemo by one month in order to go through IVF [in vitro fertilization] and egg harvesting so that one day I might be able to have a family of my own,' Steckloff said during testimony last year. Steckloff's bill, HB 5207, established the Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy Parentage Act, which sets standards for creating a surrogacy contract including that a surrogate be 21 or older, have previously given birth to a child, completed a medical and mental health consultation and have independent legal representation of their choice, all paid for by the intended parents. Although Whitmer signed the Michigan Family Protection Act into law in April 2024, Republicans in the Legislature actively opposed the measure and refused to give it immediate effect, making it unable to officially begin until 90 days after December 31, when the 102nd Legislature adjourned its session, which will be April 1. That opposition, supported by the Michigan Catholic Conference and Right to Life of Michigan, was based on concerns that legalized surrogacy contracts can exploit vulnerable women. Among them was state Sen. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), who urged his colleagues to vote no on the legislation that he contended puts 'vulnerable women at risk of exploitation' and 'fundamentally redefines family.' Meanwhile, Brownell says the Michigan Fertility Alliance is now launching a new grassroots coalition called State Strong, which will be advocating for surrogacy and fertility access nationwide. 'In a lot of these states they might just have one or two advocates that, for example, they're seeing that there's like really bad IVF legislation in say Nebraska. So they would kind of reach out to us and say, what should we do with the messaging on this? Do you have any legislation that's happened that you can share with us? Because a lot of these people are just kind of like us, volunteers, people who have never really worked on legislation advocacy before. And so State Strong is continuing that fight on a national level now as well,' Brownell said. While those issues will also get more attention later this month during National Infertility Awareness Week from April 20-26, Brownell says when it comes to the children who are created through surrogacy, the details of how they came to be are not nearly as important as their very existence. 'We need to start asking them how they feel about it. And I think that you have hundreds of thousands of children who are born through surrogacy, the majority of whom are still under the age of 18, but as they start coming of age, they can tell their stories,' Brownell said, pointing to a University of Cambridge 20-year longitudinal study of third-party assisted reproduction which found positive family relationships and child adjustment from childhood to adult life. 'It found that children born through surrogacy, how did they feel about it? They didn't care. It was just like 'Whatever. Why do I care how I was born?'' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
