No. SB 1680
Filed under Healthcare.
Surrogacy and Assisted Reproduction; Providing that a preplanned adoption arrangement may not authorize certain actions under certain circumstances; requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration, in consultation with the Department of Health, to adopt certain rules for donor banks and fertility clinics by a specified date; requiring surrogacy agencies to require all participants to undergo certain mental health evaluations; requiring surrogacy agencies to obtain level 2 security background investigations for participants from the Department of Children and Families through the Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFertility clinics, donor banks, and surrogacy agencies must obtain a state license or certification to keep operating in Florida. Regulators can inspect facilities annually and fine, suspend, or revoke for violations.
Donors, surrogates, and intended or commissioning parents must all pass a Level 2 background check. Failing it voids the contract, and after birth it strips a disqualified parent of all rights to the child.
Genetically-related surrogacy moves out of the adoption process entirely and into the same contract system gestational surrogacy already uses, including a new option to get court approval before the surrogate becomes pregnant.
Surrogacy contracts now require both the surrogate and the intended parents to be Florida residents who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, and agencies must escrow client payments separately from their own funds.
AIA donor bank or fertility clinic cannot legally operate in Florida without an AHCA license. Existing facilities get 6 months after new rules take effect to become licensed, and a license lasts 2 years.
AIA surrogacy agency operating in Florida must apply for and maintain DCF certification. The department inspects annually and can fine, suspend, or revoke certification for noncompliance.
AIIf a commissioning-couple member is disqualified by a background check, the surrogate becomes the child's legal mother and can collect child support from the couple, who lose any custody claim.
AIA surrogacy contract is invalid unless the surrogate is domiciled in Florida and a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, and each member of the commissioning couple meets a citizenship or residency test.
AIA preplanned adoption arrangement may no longer be used to place a child from a surrogacy arrangement covered by section 742.15, pushing genetically-related surrogacy into the contract-based track instead.
AIA commissioning couple and prospective surrogate can now petition a court to validate their surrogacy contract and confirm future parentage before the surrogate becomes pregnant, a new option with no post-birth equivalent required first.
AIThe pregnant woman, her spouse if married, and the intended parents must each have independent legal counsel before and throughout a preplanned adoption arrangement, with every attorney named in the agreement.
AIAgencies must have all participants undergo a mental health evaluation before proceeding and again every two years, plus a medical evaluation for donors and surrogates, before matching or contracting.