Florida AG Attempts To Ban Surrogacy By Same-Sex Couples, Calling It “Slavery,” Against State Constitution

Slate reports:

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is attempting to strip legal parentage from families who conceive children using a genetic donor, launching an attack on one same-sex couple that has sweeping ramifications for thousands more—including heterosexual and adoptive parents.

The Miami Herald reported last week that Uthmeier, a Republican appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, intervened in a routine case to argue that Florida’s surrogacy contract language violates the 13th Amendment’s prohibition on slavery, and, more sweepingly, that the state constitution bars biological parents from transferring parental rights at all.

These theories—which one far-right judge has already endorsed—would end both surrogacy and donor conception in Florida, while imperiling parents’ ability to adopt out their birth children. They would render some parents legal strangers to the children they are already raising, potentially leaving those kids without recognized parents at all.

Via press release from Equality Florida:

Equality Florida is sounding the alarm over dangerous and politically motivated efforts to undermine surrogacy and in vitro fertilization and (IVF), warning that the attacks broadly threaten reproductive freedom and the ability to start a family.

Recent reporting has raised alarm among reproductive rights advocates, family law experts, and LGBTQ organizations after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier intervened in a surrogacy dispute equating surrogacy to slavery and human trafficking.

Those inflammatory and deeply offensive arguments could destabilize decades of family law and undermine protections for parents and children alike, including the legality of adoption in Florida.

While the case involves a same-sex couple, Equality Florida emphasized that the broader risks extend to countless Floridians who rely on assisted reproduction to have children.

“Family is defined by love, not Attorney General Uthmeier’s campaign strategy,” said Jon Harris Maurer, General Counsel and Public Policy Director for Equality Florida.

“Politicians have no business intruding because parents turn to surrogacy and IVF to start the family they’ve desperately dreamed of. What could be more hypocritical of parents’ rights? This is part of a broader and deeply dangerous effort to dictate who gets to build a family, whose families are recognized under the law, and who deserves the freedom to parent their children.”

The Tampa Bay Times reports:

Last August, a married couple went before a Broward County court in what was expected to be a routine surrogacy case. The couple, two men living in France, had contracted with a Florida woman in December to carry their child. As her due date approached, the fathers-to-be petitioned for early parental rights.

While the judge did grant the order, his opinion — and the involvement of Florida’s attorney general — set off a chain of events that could result in a dramatic reshaping of not only surrogacy law, but a range of reproductive issues in Florida.

Judge Marlon Weiss, going beyond what is typically required in such a case, suggested in his order that surrogacy may be unconstitutional. His ruling holds that if unborn children are entitled to personhood — which he implies is correct, citing legal articles in favor of that view — those children cannot be subject to an ownership contract.

In November, roughly 24 hours after the fathers told the court about the baby’s birth, Attorney General James Uthmeier began pushing to intervene in the case. His office is arguing that surrogacy is akin to slavery, saying it violates the 13th Amendment and should be deemed unconstitutional, according to a lawyer representing the family.

Anti-LGBTQ hate groups have long called surrogacy by gay couples “slavery” and de facto child trafficking. I encourage you to watch the video below by Mark Joseph Stern, the author of the above-linked Slate report.

Last August, two married men living in France went to a Broward County court for what was expected to be a routine surrogacy case. They contracted with a Florida woman to carry their child, but their effort to establish parental rights could dramatically reshape Florida reproductive issues.

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— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@sun-sentinel.com) May 15, 2026 at 8:44 AM

The Florida Attorney General’s Office is intervening in a surrogacy case after the judge called the practice’s constitutionality into question: https://www.wkrg.com/state-regional/florida/florida-attorney-general-calls-surrogacy-slavery-as-office-moves-to-intervene-in-case-report/

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— WKRG-TV 5 (@wkrg5.bsky.social) May 12, 2026 at 6:00 AM

@markjosephstern Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is trying to take a baby away from its two dads—and could make adoption unconstitutional in the process. #florida #desantis #adoption #surrogacy #lgbt ♬ original sound – mjs_dc

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