Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier pledged last week to introduce a state-level bill regulating surrogacy.
The Protecting Kids from Predators Pursuing Parenthood Act would prevent registered sex offenders and people convicted of animal abuse from obtaining a child via surrogacy, the Attorney General explained in a short video posted to X.
He plans to introduce the bill in Florida’s 2026 legislative session.
Uthmeier’s announcement comes amid America’s reckoning with the laughable permissibility of surrogacy laws.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the nation learned a Pennsylvania sex offender purchased a child through gestational surrogacy — a surrogacy contract in which at least one of the parties is biologically related to the child being purchased.
Brandon Keith Mitchell was convicted of felony child porn possession and corruption of a minor in 2016 after he sexually abused a 16-year-old; the boy was a student at the high school where Mitchell taught chemistry.
Mitchell served only two months of his two-year prison sentence. His parole conditions required he register as a sex offender, surrender his teaching license and refrain from unsupervised contact with minor children.
But Mitchell and his partner, a man named Logan Riley, had no problem gaining full parental rights over a newborn in 2023 via a gestational surrogacy contract.
Tim Barker, the District Attorney of York County, Pennsylvania, where Mitchell and Riley live, told Newsweek the pair took advantage of a massive loophole in state laws governing surrogacy contracts.
“Pennsylvania law currently does not, in and of itself, prohibit a registered sex offender from becoming a parent through surrogacy,” he explained.
This means the baby cannot be removed from Mitchell’s care based on his prior convictions. What’s more, Pennsylvania recognizes Mitchell as the child’s parent, making it considerably harder for state actors to intervene.
This loophole is not unique to Pennsylvania. In Florida, the only pre-requisite to entering a gestational surrogacy contract — an agreement to grow and purchase a child — is that all parties be at least 18 years old.
Meanwhile, state governments from sea to shining sea are denying Christians’ adoption applications because they do not believe in affirming a child’s sexual identity confusion.
Lack of surrogacy regulation in states like Florida and Pennsylvania reflect our culture’s mistaken conception of surrogacy: That it’s a pro-family technology helping couples struggling with infertility to have biological children.
Even in the best circumstances — when a married couple create an embryo and use another woman to carry that baby to term — surrogacy is not pro-family. It breaks the bond between a baby and the mother who grew them for nine months.
Focus on the Family’s position statement on surrogacy asks whether “we fully understand the implications of turning conception and childbearing into services for hire,” continuing:
What about the child? Who does she belong to, really? (We’re not talking about legality, here–but spiritually, morally and emotionally.) Does surrogacy make the child a commodity.
Child advocate Katy Faust expands on the consequences of surrogacy for children in World :
Maternal separation is a major physiological stressor for the infant, and studies have found that even brief maternal deprivation can permanently alter the structure of the infant brain.
But that aside, the ethical nature of a scientific technology cannot be determined by its best use-case alone. Surrogacy is rife with potential for abuse. Offenders like Mitchell are already taking advantage.
Focus on the Family and the Daily Citizen believe all surrogacy — contractual and altruistic — is morally wrong. In the absence of a total prohibition, we support laws tightening restrictions on surrogacy and protecting children born into these ethically compromised situations.
Additional Articles and Resources
Focus on the Family’s Position Statement on Surrogacy
Baby Should Be Immediately Removed from Convicted Child Predator
Court Frees Christian mom to Adopt, Stop Oregon’s Gender Ideology Adoption Mandate
When Government is Hostile to Christian Foster Parents
Maternal Health is Declining Because We Are Ignoring Mothering
Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage Harms Children and Society
Chip and Joanna Gaines Platform Couple to ‘Normalize Same-Sex Families’
