This bill requires all Minnesota health plans, both private and publicly funded, to cover assisted reproductive services, including surrogacy. Minnesota Family Council has multiple concerns with the bill, including that insurance would cover cryopreservation storage of human embryos and the eugenic process of embryo selection. Under the language of the bill, mandate would also require the bill to cover surrogacy. How does surrogacy work?

Eggs and sperm are sourced either from the person or people who will raise the child, or they can be purchased from a seller, otherwise known as a “donor.” Embryos and sperm are fertilized into multiple embryos and usually graded by quality, viability, and other characteristics. Surrogacy always involves the stripping of a child from the only mother the child has known throughout pregnancy. She is called the surrogate or the "gestational carrier." Most surrogacy arrangements are paid, meaning that the surrogate is paid for renting her body, and she must follow any requirements from the intended parents’ specifications in contract, including medical, dietary, and lifestyle requirements.

If the pregnancy goes according to contract, the baby is delivered and handed over immediately to a person or people this baby has never known. Surrogacy always involves intentional stripping of a child from the only mother the baby has known - a grave injustice to children.

This process is also costly - surrogate compensation, agency fees, IVF embryo creation and transfer, legal fees, and other costs, can bring the total cost to $100-$200K dollars. Under surrogacy, anyone who is able to pay for a baby can get a baby. This process is completely separate from the best interest of the child standard. Requiring all health plans to cover these practices is bad public policy for Minnesota.