New Federal Crime Proposed: Registered Sex Offenders Face Up to 18 Years for Using Surrogacy to Parent

This bill, officially titled the “No Surrogacy for Sex Offenders Act,” creates a severe new federal crime aimed at individuals required to register as sex offenders. In short, if you are on the sex offender registry and use interstate or foreign commerce—which, let’s be honest, covers pretty much any modern financial transaction or communication—to enter into a surrogacy arrangement, you could face up to 18 years in federal prison, a hefty fine, or both. The law applies specifically if the registered person intends to exercise parental rights over the child.

The New Federal Offense: A Lifetime Ban on Surrogacy?

This legislation adds a new section to federal criminal code (Chapter 109B of title 18). The core of the prohibition targets registered sex offenders who seek to use surrogacy to have a child they intend to parent. The bill defines a “surrogacy arrangement” broadly as any agreement where the person carrying the child is expected not to exercise parental rights, and another person who agreed to the arrangement will exercise those rights. This definition captures both commercial and altruistic surrogacy.

Crucially, the penalty—up to 18 years in prison—is triggered simply by entering the arrangement, provided the person is a registered sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). This is a significant expansion of federal criminal authority, effectively creating a permanent, life-long ban on using surrogacy as a method of family formation for anyone on the registry, regardless of the nature of their original offense or how long ago it occurred. For someone who committed a non-violent, registerable offense decades ago and has since rebuilt their life, this bill closes a door to a specific reproductive option with an extremely harsh penalty.

The Catch-All Provision: Sex Offenses During the Arrangement

The bill also includes a second, related offense: anyone who uses interstate or foreign commerce to enter a surrogacy arrangement and then commits a sex offense during the period between entering the agreement and the child’s birth also faces the same penalty—up to 18 years. This provision aims to protect the surrogate and the process itself, linking any new sex offense during that defined timeframe to the surrogacy arrangement and imposing the maximum penalty.

Real-World Implications: Disproportionate Penalties

When we talk about 18 years, we need to put that in perspective. That’s a penalty comparable to serious violent felonies. Applying this maximum sentence to the act of signing a contract for assisted reproduction, even by a registered sex offender, raises serious questions about proportionality. For the affected group, this means a reproductive choice available to the general public is now a federal crime carrying a near-two-decade prison sentence. This restriction is based solely on registration status, which under SORNA can include a wide variety of offenses, some of which may not involve children or violence.

Furthermore, because the law uses “foreign commerce,” it could potentially criminalize a US-registered sex offender who attempts to enter a surrogacy arrangement outside the United States if the intent is to bring the child back and parent them in the US. This adds a layer of complexity for international reproductive law and federal jurisdiction. While the stated benefit is public safety by preventing registered offenders from gaining parental rights through this method, the mechanism chosen is a severe criminal penalty that could be seen as disproportionately restricting reproductive autonomy.