If adults represented by competent attorneys choose to use a surrogate to have a family, why should it be anybody’s business but the participants?
Republican Mary Pilcher-Cook has introduced a bill in the Kansas Senate that would void all surrogacy contracts and make it illegal to pay women to serve as surrogates.
This is definitely an example of legislators taking things too far. Pilcher-Cook said they are worried about the health of surrogate children and the women who bear them. They also said they are worried about the poor.
If a woman over age 21 chooses to be a surrogate and make this tremendous sacrifice in her own life, she should be allowed to do so. If she chooses to make some money, it is only because childbirth is called “labor” for a reason. Bearing a child is no easy task.
Republicans generally want to promote smaller government, yet if this bill passes, it would cause an inordinate amount of policing by an as yet unnamed enforcement authority. Imagine the questions that would have to be asked of women by fertility clinics.
Besides, if someone can afford a surrogate, they’ll just go to another state if it can’t happen in Kansas. This bill would take money out-of-the-state for something that is nobody’s business but the participants. It would also send surrogacy underground and wouldn’t stop it.
It seems the state legislator’s time on our tax dollar might be better spent dealing with the financial issues caused by the huge tax cuts enacted to eliminate state income tax  on profits for many small business owners, which can include high income businesses such as those owned by doctors and lawyers. Or the school funding issue.
According to the Associated Press, tax collections this year are running about 9 percent behind collections last year because of income tax cuts enacted last year.
This surrogacy bill would hurt the state more than it helps.