What We Do
MFA founder Stephanie Jones, standing next to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, speaks at the signing of the Michigan Family Protection Act on April 1st, 2024
What We Do
Fighting for Michigan Families
Michigan Fertility Alliance (MFA) is a patient- and family-led advocacy organization working to protect and advance access to fertility care and family building across Michigan.
Founded in 2019 by people with lived experience, MFA gives a voice to the patients, parents, intended parents, gestational carriers, and families directly impacted by fertility and family-building policy.
We believe every Michigander should have the opportunity to build their family—and that the people most affected by these policies should have a seat at the table when decisions are made.
We Turn Lived Experience Into Policy Change
At MFA, advocacy starts with families.
We bring together people with lived experience and pair their voices with policy expertise, medical evidence, legal expertise, and strategic advocacy to help lawmakers understand both the human impact of policy and the solutions available to them.
We work directly with lawmakers and policymakers, medical professionals, attorneys, national organizations, advocates, and other stakeholders to advance smart, evidence-based, pro-family policy in Michigan.
What We Fight For
Access to Fertility Care
Fertility care is healthcare. Yet for too many Michigan families, treatments such as IVF and IUI remain financially out of reach because insurance coverage has not kept pace with modern medicine.
MFA advocates for policies that expand access to evidence-based fertility care and reduce the financial barriers standing between people and the families they hope to build.
Protecting Assisted Reproduction + Surrogacy
IVF, donor-assisted reproduction, and gestational surrogacy make parenthood possible for thousands of families who could not otherwise have children.
We work to ensure Michigan remains a place where families can safely access assisted reproduction and surrogacy and where smart policy protects everyone involved—including patients, intended parents, gestational carriers, and children.
Protecting Parents + Children
How a child comes into the world should not determine whether their family is legally protected.
MFA advocates for modern parentage laws that provide clear, secure legal relationships between children and their parents, including families formed through assisted reproduction, donor conception, and surrogacy.
Protecting the Future of Family Building
The policy landscape surrounding fertility care and assisted reproduction is changing rapidly across the country.
MFA works with state and national partners to monitor emerging legislation, educate policymakers, respond to threats, and ensure Michigan families have a strong voice when policies affecting fertility care and family building are being considered.
Advocacy Works
MFA has already demonstrated what patient- and family-led advocacy can accomplish.
When MFA was founded in 2019, Michigan had one of the most restrictive surrogacy laws in the country. The state's 1988 Surrogate Parenting Act criminalized compensated surrogacy contracts and left many families formed through assisted reproduction without a clear pathway to legal parentage.
MFA set out to change it.
We built a statewide grassroots movement, brought families directly to lawmakers, assembled legal and policy experts, educated decision-makers, and helped develop and advance comprehensive legislation to modernize Michigan law.
That work culminated in the Michigan Family Protection Act, a historic nine-bill package signed into law by Governor Gretchen Whitmer on April 1, 2024.
The new laws created a legal framework for gestational surrogacy and modernized Michigan's parentage laws to better protect children and families formed through assisted reproduction.
We changed Michigan law—and proved what is possible when families organize and make their voices heard.
LEARN ABOUT THE MICHIGAN FAMILY PROTECTION ACT
Our Work Continues
Passing the Michigan Family Protection Act was a major victory. It wasn't the finish line.
Today, MFA is building on that success to tackle the next generation of fertility and family-building issues in Michigan—from expanding insurance coverage for fertility care to protecting assisted reproduction and the legal rights of families.
And as fertility care and family building increasingly become the subject of policy debates across the country, having a strong, organized voice for Michigan families has never been more important.
We are here to protect what we've won, advance what families still need, and make sure Michigan families have a voice in the decisions that affect their ability to grow.
Join Us
Policy changes when people speak up.
Whether you are a fertility patient, parent, intended parent, gestational carrier, medical professional, attorney, advocate, ally, or simply believe that Michigan families deserve the opportunity to grow, there is a place for you in this work.
Together, we can continue making Michigan a better place to build a family.