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Michigan has become the last state to decriminalize paid surrogacy on Monday, after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a package of bills intended to protect families using surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Whitmer signed the Michigan Family Protection Act on Monday. She described the act as a “package of common sense,” at an event in Royal Oak, Michigan. “It’s to protect families born under IVF, and to ensure LGBTQ plus parents are treated equally.”
Surrogacy – in which one person agrees to carry a child for an intended parent or parents – has become an important tool for families facing infertility and same-sex couples.
According to the governor, Michigan was the last state in the United States to still criminalize paid surrogacy contracts. In addition to states explicitly regulating paid surrogacy, some states have no laws about surrogacy but it is commonly accepted, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
“Our outdated law prescribed up to a year of jail time and a $10,000 fine” for paid surrogacies,” Whitmer said.
“Today’s bills repeal that ban and...