Future Mayor Tommy Wells? Photo by Amber Wilkie

Earlier today, Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) held a hearing on legislation that would decriminalize parental surrogacy agreements in D.C.

Currently, D.C. is the only place in the country to ban surrogacy agreements—which allows for would-be parents to pay for another woman to carry and deliver a baby for them.

“Compared to the 50 states, District law is the most restrictive with regard to surrogacy agreements” Wells, who chairs the D.C. Council’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, said at the hearing. “This is woefully out of step with our commitment to equality and family.” It is indeed, considering the criminal penalty for enacted a surrogacy agreement is pretty hefty: Up to a $10,000 fine or a year in jail, or both.

The new bill, cited as the “Surrogacy Parenting Agreement Act of 2013,” was introduced by Councilmember David A. Catania (I-At Large), and would allow for agreements between intended parents and potential surrogate mothers to be legal in the District. Of course with the requisite measures including proper legal representation between the two parties and a notarized, written agreement.

“Many of us know individuals or couples who want a family, but cannot have children in the conventional way,” Wells said at the hearing. “I believe it should be an option here in the District as well. I cannot condone criminalizing intended parents and the women who would help them realize their dream of having a child simply because they have a surrogacy agreement.”