Surrogacy laws by state: where compensated surrogacy is legal in 2026

Compensated gestational surrogacy is legal or practiced in 47 states and the District of Columbia as of 2026; the exceptions are Nebraska, where compensated agreements are void by statute, Louisiana, which allows only uncompensated surrogacy for married couples using their own gametes, and, until April 2025, Michigan. States fall into four groups: statute states with pre-birth orders for all parents (Illinois, California, Colorado, New Jersey, New York, Washington, Nevada, Michigan since 2025); statute states with conditions (Texas requires married parents and 90-day residency; Florida uses a post-birth order); no-statute states where courts grant orders by practice (Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, North Carolina, Tennessee); and gray-area states such as Arizona. The legal path depends on where the surrogate lives and delivers, not where the parents live.