An Interview with Stephanie Jones
Stephanie Jones, Founder, MFA
Stephanie Jones is the founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance (MFA). She is the mother of two children, one of whom was born via a gestational carrier in Kentucky in June 2020. The MFA’s Advocacy Team Oral Historian, Parker Kehrig, interviewed her about the reasons she is fighting to change the surrogacy laws in Michigan. Excerpts:
Kehrig: Why did you start the Michigan Fertility Alliance?
Jones: I founded Michigan fertility Alliance out of pure necessity. In 2018, when my husband and I knew surrogacy was our only option to expand our family, we were completely shocked to realize it is illegal in the state of Michigan. Surrogacy contracts are not recognized, and compensated surrogacy can be punishable by a felony. We didn’t have an altruistic carrier to volunteer to carry for us in Michigan. Our only option was contractual compensated surrogacy. We were devastated. I started searching for an organization that could lend some support and resources. But Michigan did not have an organization advocating for both surrogacy and infertility, and that is how MFA came to be.
How did things progress after your initial thoughts to do something?
Progression was slow and methodical. In my spare time, I started connecting with people and reached out to Resolve, The National Association for Infertility. We're so used to just jumping on Google and getting all the answers. And in this case, it was a lot of door knocking, emailing, and calling and introducing myself. It was getting connected to the right people who then connected me to other people. I'm just grateful for those people who took the time professionally to talk to me and help this mission: Resolve, journalists, doctors, [agency] professionals, attorneys, and the University of Michigan students who have become a part of our advocacy team this summer.
What fuels this excitement and drive to create and maintain MFA?
The primary driving force was my journey: I had an extremely rare near fatal ruptured cornual ectopic pregnancy in December 2016. This condition has a high fatality rate, most women can’t get to the hospital in time. And I was definitely on that trajectory but my life was spared due to a skilled OBGYN and a guardian angel. After being cleared to carry again, I experienced another medically unexplainable recurrence in 2018. Although it was caught before rupturing it required another major surgery to remove the pregnancy and ended my ability to safely carry a pregnancy. PTSD set in hard. After a whole lot of therapy and searching, I wanted to do something with my second chance at life and fight for people here in Michigan, like myself that have to go through surrogacy to have a baby, regardless of their reasoning. Helping work to change the laws so that Michiganders have access to surrogacy is my life’s mission.
What do you see as the intersection of surrogacy and bodily autonomy?
I believe in full autonomy. No matter how you identify, if you do have a uterus, you have this scientific right to make your own decisions. Be it to have children or not have children, or to help someone else have children.
What are the social and political implications of criminalizing surrogacy?
Socially, there is so much misinformation around surrogacy that it makes an already complicated situation even more difficult so criminalizing something that is widely accepted in 48 other states makes the unnecessary reason for pause. Here in Michigan, surrogacy is grossly misrepresented and under-represented due to our law banning contractual surrogacy. People outside the surrogacy community think it’s reserved for the rich and famous but little do they know how prevalent it really is among everyday people and families. I do not feel politics belong in the debate of surrogacy. Surrogacy is a treatment option for the disease of infertility. Infertility is a bipartisan issue. 1 in 8 couples suffer from infertility. It does not discriminate yet politics treat it as if surrogacy is a choice. It is not a choice. It is the last hope for many. I didn’t choose to be born in a state that would one day discriminate against a disease I did not choose to have. My husband didn’t choose to marry someone who one day, after having our first child, would experience secondary infertility and need surrogacy to expand our family. It doesn’t get more pro-family than surrogacy. The hardest pill to swallow is Michigan’s law that makes those of us suffering from infertility dehumanized. It's draconian. And it's been left frozen in time, since the late 1980s. The Michigan government is telling us, “if you're an infertile, although the treatment [surrogacy] is legal and successful in 48 other states, you don't have access to it based on the state you happen to live in.” I use the analogy of being diagnosed with a horrible disease. And the treatment for the disease is documented, researched, and they know it's successful. And it's legal, just not in your state.
What’s your dream for the future of surrogacy legislation in Michigan?
My goal is for surrogacy to be recognized as a treatment for a disease, that is infertility—which is recognized by both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Congress— and it would be no different than how we treat cancer or heart disease treatment. I want to clear the muddy waters that currently suffocate surrogacy in Michigan both medically and legally. An updated pro-family law would remove so much of the stress from the situation. Intended parents in Michigan lucky enough to find an altruistic carrier are in the 11th hour, just praying that their pre-birth parentage rights will get approved so their name can appear on their child's birth certificate and be added to their insurance. Most aren’t approved and they're having to adopt their own children, which is very stressful, expensive, and sucks the joy out of one of life’s true gifts - a baby. For those parents like myself who were unable to find an altruistic carrier in state and have gone out of state to compensate a carrier, the financial burden is crippling since every portion of the process including the birth is out of pocket because insurance doesn’t cover out-of-network medical expenses. There is also the added stress and expense of travel. All-in, our journey cost us $170,000. I want the crippling stress to be removed from the situation, a law to remove the barriers, give access, make resources available, to be supportive and inclusive. Let's bring Michigan into the 21st century.
Is there anything that feels salient that you would want to see kept? Like maybe there's something we're doing right?
That capacity of humans, specifically women and the community they’ve built, to help other women who are struggling, gives me hope. Someone in the surrogacy community once told me in response to the journey of changing the laws here, “water will find its way.” As we fight for change, I repeat this frequently. Those five simple words speak to the sheer will to change the law but more so to the desire to have a child.
Parker Kehrig, MFA Advocacy Team