![\"Scott](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HYGZU6EIIFCP3IMPNBGNBZMXHI.jpg\")
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Orlando Sentinel<\/p>\n
Scott Maxwell is an Orlando Sentinel columnist.<\/p>\n
The argument seems absurd on its face. But it\u2019s really about setting a legal precedent that would help Uthmeier make a case against abortion. If he could advance the \u201cpersonhood\u201d argument (that embryos or fetuses are people) in a surrogacy case, it would help him attack abortion rights as well.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s legal gamesmanship that hurts everyday Floridians, many of whom turned to surrogacy after heartbreak.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re women like Marla Neufeld, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who suffered through five painful years of infertility and miscarriages before finally seeking a surrogate.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants to be in this position,\u201d Neufeld said. \u201cNobody is doing this just for the fun of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surrogacy process was costly and complicated, but Neufeld and her husband have twin boys who are now 12. \u201cI\u2019m so blessed this process worked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The affected women are also people like Ehren McMichael, a kindergarten teacher and Longwood mother of three who decided to become a surrogate after watching her mother slowly die of ALS. In those painful, final moments, McMichael had an epiphany: \u201cWhat better way to grieve and honor my mother than to bring someone else into the world?\u201d<\/p>\n
So, through a service, she was able to help a couple she didn\u2019t even know, one that had endured five miscarriages and two failed, costly in vitro fertilization attempts.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier\u2019s insertion into a South Florida case was sketchy from the get-go. The Tampa Bay Times<\/a>, which exposed the legal maneuvering last week, reported that the case involves two men in France who found a Florida woman to be their surrogate. The judge who was being asked to sign off on transferring parental rights to the couple knew he had no legitimate reason not to do so. Everyone involved had followed the law.<\/p>\n But Judge Marlon Weiss apparently didn\u2019t like the law. So the Times reported that Weiss, \u201cgoing beyond what is typically required in such a case, suggested in his order that surrogacy may be unconstitutional. His ruling holds that if unborn children are entitled to personhood \u2026 those children cannot be subject to an ownership contract.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s where it becomes pretty clear that this ruling wasn\u2019t really about this family at all. This was a judge trying to set legal precedent for the anti-abortion movement \u2014 and trying to score himself a judicial promotion in the process. The Times reported that Weiss later submitted his unorthodox ruling as part of an application to DeSantis for an appellate position.<\/p>\n Uthmeier then started trying to intervene, with a spokeswoman issuing a statement<\/a> that said: \u201cThe Attorney General is concerned about any case where a surrogacy company profits off the sale of children; it constitutes modern-day slavery, interferes with a mom\u2019s parental rights, and the rights of the child.\u201d<\/p>\n Uthmeier seems to be pouncing on the fact that some surrogates get paid \u2014 as if that\u2019s some kind of sin. Well, the reason many get paid isn\u2019t complicated. It can be tough to find a relative or friend who\u2019s ready to spend nine months pregnant for a child they\u2019ll never raise.<\/p>\n And also because the process can be draining \u2014 emotionally, physically and financially.<\/p>\n Neufeld, who went on to specialize in fertility and surrogate law<\/a> after experiencing the process firsthand, stressed that surrogates take on \u201ctremendous physical, emotional and logistical commitment in the process of helping build a family.\u201d That\u2019s why, she said: \u201cFlorida law appropriately recognizes this by permitting payment of the surrogate\u2019s reasonable living, legal, medical, psychological and psychiatric expenses directly related\u201d to the pregnancy.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t about enriching a surrogate, Neufeld said, but \u201censuring that the surrogate is not financially disadvantaged for what she is putting her body and life through.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Uthmeier had an ideological war to wage.<\/p>\n A lawyer for the two fathers told the Times that Uthmeier \u2014 who was appointed to the post and now needs to win an election if he wants to keep it \u2014 is trying to use surrogacy cases as \u201cpolitical fodder for his campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n If so, he may have gravely miscalculated.<\/p>\n Some legal experts say<\/a> Uthmeier\u2018s legal push could imperil IVF and possibly even adoption if the state\u2019s new argument is that any custodial transfer that also involves money is an act of human trafficking. And we\u2019ve seen that kind of extremist legal argument backfire before.<\/p>\n Just two years ago, after an Alabama court issued a ruling that threatened the in vitro process, there was outrage across the political spectrum. So much so that Donald Trump told Alabama lawmakers<\/a> to rush to protect IVF rights.<\/p>\n That bipartisan backlash happened for a simple reason: Most decent human beings believe parents struggling to have children deserve support. Not scorn or legal hurdles. And certainly not accusations that they\u2019re involved in slavery or human trafficking.<\/p>\n