ROYAL OAK – Surrounded by families who relied on surrogacy and IVF to get pregnant, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the Family Protection Act in Royal Oak on Monday.
A bill package intended to authorize contractual surrogacy relationships cleared its final major hurdle in the Senate following debate over the intent of the proposal and votes largely along party lines Tuesday.
Appropriations subcommittees will likely begin to move on their budget recommendations after spring break.
A nine-bill package aimed at making assisted fertility care like in vitro fertilization and surrogacy more legally stable received mixed and often emotional testimony in a Thursday hearing.
People who need access to reproductive care are safe in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement earlier this week in response to the Alabama Supreme Court decision that found embryos are "extrauterine children," complicating access to in vitro fertilization in that state.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer confronts a different dynamic as she prepares to deliver her sixth State of the State speech on Wednesday, confined somewhat in offering new proposals given some priorities she identified in the fall still require action and a lack of legislative session days available for policy with a fully functional Democratic majority.
The first all-Democratic government in 40 years finished out 2023 with 321 public acts, the most bills signed into law in the first year of a term since 2011.
Establishing the legal relationship between a parent and a child conceived through surrogacy and assisted reproduction was discussed at length by a House committee Wednesday.
House members are calling for a focus on inclusivity amid the ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
Bills requiring insurance providers to cover hearing aids for children under the age of 19 as well as wraparound services were discussed during a House committee on Thursday.