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Utah Senate concurs with House changes to Uniform Parentage Act after heated surrogacy debate
Summary
Senate concurs with House amendments to SB14 (Uniform Parentage Act) including restrictions on gestational agreements — counseling, age limits, prohibition on gestational mother using her eggs or spouse’s sperm, a two-year limitations period with a fraud exception — after floor debate over surrogacy provisions; motion to concur passed 26–1.
The Utah Senate on Feb. 17 voted to concur with House amendments to Senate Bill 14, the Uniform Parentage Act, adopting tighter limits on gestational agreements including counseling requirements, a minimum age of 21 for parties, a ban on the gestational mother contributing her own eggs or her husband’s sperm, and a clarified two-year statute of limitations that preserves an exception for fraud.
Senator Hilliard, the floor sponsor, summarized the House changes and said he supported the concurrence. He stressed that the intent of the amendments was to narrow and clarify the law so courts and parties would have defined parameters for cases involving gestational agreements. "We also provide counseling for all of the parties before the court can approve it and also that the parties must be 21 years of age," Hilliard said.
Several senators raised concerns focused narrowly on section 8, the surrogacy provisions. Senator Butters said he had "struggled" with surrogacy and intended to vote against concurrence because he believed the surrogacy provisions should be deferred or split out for separate consideration. "I just don't see a reason why we gotta rush into this surrogacy thing," Butters said on the floor.
Sponsor Hilliard and other backers argued that prior federal court litigation had left the area in legal limbo and that establishing narrowly defined statutory parameters was preferable to leaving the matter to the courts. The Senate voted to concur in the House amendments; the clerk announced the concurrence passed with 26 yeas and 1 nay and the bill was transmitted back to the House for further action.
The change package includes a provision that a gestational mother cannot be on welfare, an intended parent must have a biological connection to the child (sperm or egg), no biological connection between the gestational mother and her husband is permitted where she is acting as gestational mother, and courts must approve compensation and counseling arrangements.
