Boss Mom: Why Texas Should Revise Its Legislation to Allow Gestational Surrogacy Contract Enforcement for Social Surrogacies

Career-driven women have consistently been forced to choose between their careers and creating a family. However, with the use of reproductive technology, this is no longer necessary. In recent years, fertile women have been looking to gestational surrogacy as a pregnancy alternative. These women are opting to use surrogates not be- cause they cannot bear a child but because being pregnant is not feasible for their careers. These surrogacies have been termed “social surrogacies.” However, surrogacy laws throughout the United States are diverse and complicated, and many do not allow for the enforcement of social surrogacy contracts. These states, particularly Texas, require that the intended mother be unable to bear a pregnancy without risk to herself or her fetus in order to have a legally enforceable gestational agreement. This Comment discusses the various surrogacy laws throughout the United States and analyzes the trend toward surrogacy acceptance. Specifically, this Comment argues that these surrogacy laws are unconstitutional and do not further any public policy goals by implementing a medical need requirement for intended parents. Thus, this Comment argues that Texas legislators should revise Texas’s surrogacy statutes and eliminate the medical need requirement, which in turn would allow enforcement of gestational surrogacy agreements for social surrogacies.