Legislative Committee 

Shane Zozula,  BS, TS(ABB)

Considering all the recent debates and election talk, it is fair to assume that staying abreast with practical legislation that may impact your fertility practice services is not a high priority. Most of us don’t spend the time pondering the significance of legislative bills being surveyed for comment, nor do we take the time to respond to them when we have the chance. Typically, most individuals simply wait till the bill has passed and deal with the outcome. The reality is that most of these bills being proposed are not written by scientists in the field of ART, but instead by politicians and lawyers. Therefore, it is important that we all take the time to review these bills before they become law and make sure they don’t hinder us from our very mission of creating healthy babies for families.

Minnesota currently has two bills (SF 348 and HF 437) that are trying to establish a Legislative Surrogacy Commission. The organizations behind these bills oppose gestational carrier surrogacy in Minnesota. At this point it appears that they have failed to establish a surrogacy commission. As many of us are aware, surrogacy and egg donation are illegal in some countries and many come to the US to perform these services to achieve or complete their family. RESOLVE does not support this bill.

We are still working on a Legislative Advocacy Tool Kit similar that created by ASRM not long ago. The purpose of the kit is to assist AAB/CRB members by providing information to help you be your own legislative advocate. We encourage you to contact us if there is any pending legislation that may impact our laboratories or the field of Reproductive Medicine, in general.