Louisiana passes bill limiting surrogacy to married (heterosexual) couples

For today’s dose of anti-choice fuckery…

A bill has successfully passed the Louisiana House that requires “intended parents” to be married in order to be eligible for surrogacy. The bill states:

 “‘Intended parents’ means married persons who contribute their gametes to be used in assisted reproduction, and who enter into an enforceable gestational surrogacy contract, as defined in this Chapter, with a gestational carrier pursuant to which they will be the legal parents of the child resulting from that assisted reproduction.”

As if the aforementioned isn’t bad enough, Louisiana law also has an effective ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions. So, same-sex couples, in addition to unmarried couples, and single folks are not eligible to use a surrogate to have a child. Wow Louisiana, way to kill multiple birds with one stone, or in this case, shame three groups with one bill.

People should be allowed to have children (using methods that they decide are best for them) regardless of marital status or sexual identity, especially in light of this recent study on same-sex parenting. There is no reason to deny these groups access to surrogacy.

Governor Bobby Jindal has yet to sign the bill.