Michigan, Nebraska, and Louisiana now prohibit paid surrogacy, a process where a couple or individual gives monetary compensation to a woman who is willing to carry their baby and deliver him or her.
However, one Michigan couple, Alex and Alan Kamer, have found a way around this new law. Alex and Alan had wanted biological children of their own, but that option was not available due to Alex’s complex congenital heart defect. Instead of going the route of adoption, the couple chose to hire a surrogate. When they heard of the Michigan Ban, they were disappointed because of the roadblock in their way.
“We were definitely surprised and frustrated,” Alex claimed.
Instead of going a different direction, they opted to hire an out of state surrogate. According to NBC, surrogate fees typically range from $30,000 to $60,000. However, there is an increased cost because of travel, along with the traditional fees of the surrogate, legal fees, and medical costs. The Kamer’s said that they spent an additional $40,000, since they opted to go around the Michigan law.
Surrogate fees can range due to specific circumstances. If the surrogate woman becomes pregnant with more than one baby, her fee can increase tremendously. She could also increase pricing based on her location. This happened to be the situation for the Kamer’s surrogate.
“I was so shocked,” said Alex. “I felt so dehumanized and I felt so little.”
It is not inhumane for the state to ban renting women’s bodies.
One aspect that is not commonly highlighted within paid surrogacy is the surrogate woman’s feeling of exploitation. Although each woman is consenting to help another person through this process, the main goal is usually to earn an income. The individuals volunteering to be surrogates are not typically wealthy women; the situation is quite the opposite.
Live Action News reporter Cassy Fiano-Chesser highlighted that women who are choosing to become surrogates are not well off, they are trying to get through their rough financial situation. These women have found themselves in inhumane and traumatic circumstances due to their wealthy clients. Surrogate women have been treated as property, especially when the client’s expectations are not met with the preborn baby. If there is a diagnosis in the womb, the baby is the “wrong” gender, or the woman becomes pregnant with “too many” children, surrogates have been forced to abort the baby. In some situations, women are starting the process of surrogacy, only to have a miscarage and be discarded.
Lance Bass, former member of NSYNC, spoke of the surrogates he has used as if they were broken products. “Some just wouldn’t produce enough eggs,” he complained.“Not only did we need to get a new egg donor now because we found out she had early lupus, but on top of that, when we did our egg retrieval, we only had two healthy embryos. Normally, the number’s much higher. So we put both in and once she miscarried, we had to start all over from scratch again this past year,” he added.
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Michigan’s law currently states that women’s bodies are no longer allowed to be sold or rented. Surrogacy is exploiting underprivileged women across the United States, creating trauma for them and their babies!
Even when the surrogate has not been paid, they still have the feeling of being used. One woman, who was not paid to be a surrogate, shared her story: “I felt that they [the intended parents]believed that to some extent they ‘owned’ me and my uterus, and that they ‘deserved’ to direct the birth because they saw the babies as ‘theirs.’” She added, “I was used for my uterus, and then discarded when I was no longer needed. It was the most degrading and horrific experience.” Since then, she has revealed her stance that all surrogacy should be “unlawful.” Her story reveals that surrogacy, paid or unpaid, treats women like products.
Women have an inherent value as human beings created in the image of God! Telling wealthy adults that they cannot pay an underprivileged woman to be their surrogate is not dehumanizing. It is protecting the value, safety, and life of the woman.
Pope Francis recently voiced his belief on surrogacy, calling it “deplorable” saying it is “based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”
“A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract,” he stated. “Consequently, I express my hope for an effort by the international community to prohibit this practice universally.”
We pray that surrogacy becomes a practice of the past across the nation and world!
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