Michigan will become the last US state to decriminalize surrogacy contracts

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Rachael Lang and her husband share the same last name as their biological daughter, but are not listed on her birth certificate. Instead, it bears the name of a surrogate who carried their daughter due to Lang’s past cancer diagnosis.

Michigan’s ban on paid surrogacy contracts — the only state with such a law — has forced the couple to spend nearly a year trying to adopt their biological daughter.

State lawmakers voted Tuesday to change that, hoping to make it easier for people like the Langs to more easily be deemed the legal parents of their children born through surrogates.

“Whenever I fill out paperwork for her, they ask, are you a parent or guardian? And you have to check one box or the other. I don’t know what to check because I am her parent biologically, but legally, I’m her guardian,” said Lang. “So that just makes me feel very conflicted and very sad about what I am on a piece of paper to her.”

Michigan is currently the only state in the nation where surrogacy contracts are criminally banned, according to the governor’s office. A 1988 law passed by Republicans makes it a misdemeanor or felony charge to take part in a compensated surrogacy contract.

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