Michigan Catholics are strongly criticizing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D-MI) decision to sign legislation that lifted the state’s ban on compensated surrogacy, saying the measure exploits vulnerable women and puts them at risk for human trafficking. 

Surrogacy refers to the act of a woman carrying and delivering a child for another family. The practice has garnered criticism from the head of the Catholic church, Pope Francis, who called the act “despicable” as he claimed it commercializes pregnancy. 

Michigan Catholic Conference President and CEO Paul Long said that every child is born with dignity and worth, but claimed surrogacy minimizes the dignity of motherhood and childbirth. 

“The change in Michigan law will allow for those with resources to obtain a child at the expense of women in financial need,” Long said in a statement. “For profit surrogacy contracts that pay females for the use of their reproductive means violate the inherent dignity of women and unethically allow children to be the subject of a contract. The practice of surrogacy undermines the significant prenatal bond formed between a child and the mother who nurtured him or her through birth.”

Long goes on to mention that the practice takes advantage of “cash-strapped women” who participate out of dire financial need. The conference has even gone as far as to inform lawmakers of the ill-fated consequences of contractual surrogacy worldwide, citing a United Nations report that found commercial surrogacy “often involves abusive practices.” The European Union adopted a resolution condemning the practice, citing that a woman and her body are being used as a “commodity.”

“We recognize the good that exists in a desire to have and raise children and create a family of one’s own. However, there is a societal cost to compensated, for-profit surrogacy,” Long said. “With the law requiring surrogates to have previously given birth to a child, young or single moms — likely those with small children of their own — will be targeted for the use of their body and enticed with money needed to provide for their children.”

Compensated surrogacy has been an issue raised to the Supreme Court. In 2018, Melissa Cook and two other mothers went to Washington with the hopes that the Supreme Court would weigh in on the practice, filing lawsuits in separate states. Cook found herself in a difficult spot when the adoptive father requested she have an abortion after finding out she was pregnant with triplets. 

Cook’s lawyer, Harold Cassidy, said lower courts have avoided the issue of surrogacy by claiming it’s a matter of enforcing contracts.

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“It is surprising and disturbing,” Cassidy said. But he claimed that when dealing with a child’s life, “there are rulings that have to be made.”

Michigan’s new law puts stipulations on the practice, such as a minimum age requirement of 21, requiring the surrogates to have independent legal representation, and a consultation with medical and mental health professionals.