Is surrogacy legal in Minnesota?
Reviewed by counsel [name], [date]. Every statement about Minnesota law on this page is pending review by Minnesota counsel, and no statute numbers or case names appear until counsel signs off.
Yes, in practice. Gestational surrogacy is legal and practiced in Minnesota, and paying the surrogate compensation is permitted. Minnesota has no surrogacy statute, so no state law sets out the process step by step. Courts establish parentage case by case.
That gap shapes the rest of this page. In a state with a surrogacy statute, the rules are written down and every county applies the same ones. In Minnesota, the result depends on the county where your attorney files and on how that court has handled surrogacy petitions before. The attorney you hire matters more in Minnesota than in most states, because county experience is part of what you are paying for.
This page is written by Jan Telman Berman, Global Surrogacy Coordinator at Private Label Surrogacy, who has more than 18 years in the field and manages national and international cycles. It explains how a Minnesota journey runs with PLS. It is not legal advice. Your own Minnesota reproductive attorney advises you, and the surrogate's own attorney advises her.
| Minnesota at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Legal basis | No surrogacy statute; court practice and the parties' contract |
| Status | Legal by practice; no statute; parentage orders case by case |
| Parentage method | Pre-birth or post-birth order depending on county |
| Who can be an intended parent | Married, unmarried, single and same-sex parents in practice; a non-genetic parent may complete a second-parent adoption |
| Surrogate requirements | None set by statute; PLS requires age 21 to 43, BMI under 33, a prior healthy full-term birth and full PLS screening |
| Compensation permitted | Yes |
| PLS recruits here | Yes |
What law governs surrogacy in Minnesota?
No single law. Minnesota has no statute written for gestational surrogacy agreements. The legislature has studied a surrogacy statute more than once and has not passed one.
Without a statute, a Minnesota journey rests on two documents: the gestational carrier agreement between the intended parents and the surrogate, and the parentage order a court issues for the family. That puts more weight on the agreement itself. It sets out compensation, medical decisions, insurance, travel and what happens at the hospital. Each side has its own attorney, and neither attorney works for PLS.
Three practical points follow:
- County experience counts. The legal path depends on your attorney's experience with the county where the petition is filed. Ask how many surrogacy parentage petitions your attorney has filed there.
- The rules could change. Because Minnesota keeps studying a statute, a new law could pass during your journey. Ask your attorney what a new law would mean for an agreement you have already signed.
- The agreement comes first. Nothing medical starts until both sides have signed with their own counsel.
PLS arranges gestational surrogacy only. The embryo is created by IVF, and the surrogate has no genetic link to the baby.
How is parentage established in Minnesota: pre-birth or post-birth?
It depends on the county. Many Minnesota counties grant pre-birth parentage orders to intended parents. Other counties issue the order after the birth. Courts decide each petition case by case.
A pre-birth order names the intended parents as the legal parents before delivery. The hospital has it on file when labor starts. A post-birth order reaches the same result after delivery, so your attorney plans the filing and the hospital paperwork ahead of time. The goal in both cases is the same: no gap in who makes decisions for the baby.
Where one intended parent has no genetic link to the baby, a Minnesota attorney may recommend that this parent complete a second-parent adoption, even after a parentage order, for certainty. That is an extra legal step with its own cost and timeline, and it is worth knowing about before you match.
Before you match, ask your Minnesota attorney:
- Which county would you file in, and has that court granted pre-birth orders recently?
- If our order comes after the birth, what happens at the hospital in the meantime?
- Do you recommend a second-parent adoption for our family, and what does it cost?
- What would a new Minnesota surrogacy statute change for us?
For a side-by-side explanation of both orders, see pre-birth vs post-birth parentage orders.
Who can be an intended parent in Minnesota?
Minnesota has no statute that limits who can be an intended parent. In practice, married couples, unmarried couples, single parents and same-sex couples all complete journeys with Minnesota surrogates. The parentage route may differ from family to family.
The difference usually comes down to genetics. Where both intended parents are genetically related to the baby, the parentage order is typically the main legal step. Where one parent is not, for example with donor eggs or donor sperm, a second-parent adoption may be added. A Minnesota attorney confirms the route for your family before you match.
If you live outside the US and neither parent is a US citizen, a federal executive order dated August 6, 2026 on citizenship for children born through compensated surrogacy is under litigation. Status as of [date], reviewed by counsel [name]. Raise it with your attorney at the first consultation.
PLS works with intended parents across the US and abroad, and it treats single parents and same-sex couples the same as any other family. If a pre-birth order matters to you and your Minnesota county is unlikely to grant one, PLS can match you with a surrogate in another state. In Illinois, where PLS is based, the Gestational Surrogacy Act (2005) provides for pre-birth parentage, and the Equality for Every Family Act, signed in December 2025, removes the genetic-link requirement. See surrogacy in Illinois.
Who can be a surrogate in Minnesota?
Minnesota sets no surrogate requirements in statute, because it has no surrogacy statute. The standard comes from the agency and the fertility clinic. To apply with PLS, a Minnesota surrogate must be:
- 21 to 43 years old
- A US citizen or permanent resident
- At a BMI under 33
- A mother who has had at least one healthy full-term pregnancy and is raising a child now
- A non-smoker
- Not receiving government assistance
- Living in a stable home
- Not currently taking antidepressants
Screening runs in seven steps: application, interview, records review, background check, insurance review, a psychological evaluation by an independent licensed professional, and medical screening at the intended parents' clinic. The records review is done by Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, PLS's Executive Director and an anesthesiologist with more than 30 years of practice. He reads her prenatal and delivery records himself and writes a physician medical summary that goes to your fertility clinic.
How does PLS work with Minnesota surrogates and parents?
PLS recruits surrogates in Minnesota and matches them with intended parents from across the US and abroad. Nancy Block, RN, founded PLS in 2017 after 17 years as an OB/GYN and fertility nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and she runs matching herself.
A Minnesota surrogate does her routine care close to home. She monitors at a Twin Cities clinic, then flies to your clinic for medical screening and the embryo transfer. You pay that travel from escrow, including a companion. Her PLS case manager, Natalie Gaudio-Fricano or Jenni Symons, both former surrogates, stays with her from match to delivery. Julie Bendix, MPH, RD, LD, CLC, a registered dietitian and lactation counselor, holds at least six nutrition consults with her.
The timeline, from signing:
- Matching: signing to surrogate introduction takes about 9 months today. PLS's target is 6 months or fewer.
- Legal and medical foundations: 1 to 2 months. This is when your Minnesota attorney chooses the filing county and plans the parentage order.
- Medical cycle: 2 to 3 months, ending in the transfer. The pregnancy test is 9 to 11 days later.
- Pregnancy and birth, with parentage completed on the route your attorney planned.
The whole journey typically takes 18 to 24 months. PLS does not employ attorneys or psychologists. It refers you to independent licensed professionals so that each one answers only to the person who hired them.
What does a Minnesota journey cost and how is money held?
Intended parents typically budget $150,000 to $210,000 all in, including clinic fees and insurance. Minnesota does not change PLS's fees or the surrogate's package. What can change is the legal line.
- PLS program fee. $47,500, paid in three installments.
- Surrogate compensation. A typical total package of roughly $68,000 to $78,000, built on $60,000 first-time base compensation (proposed), or $65,000 to $70,000 for an experienced surrogate. See surrogate compensation in Minnesota.
- Third-party costs, $15,300 to $29,000: attorneys on both sides, escrow, psychological evaluation, background check, insurance review, travel and local monitoring. If your attorney recommends a second-parent adoption, ask for that fee in writing; it adds to the legal line.
- Surrogate health insurance, $5,000 to $40,000, only if her plan excludes surrogacy.
- IVF and clinic fees, paid directly to your clinic.
Every dollar for the surrogate sits with an independent licensed escrow agent, not with PLS. You fund $10,000 at match and the balance before she starts medications, and you may choose your own escrow company. Agency-held money is a real risk: the Surro Connections agency collapsed in late 2025, leading to a federal indictment in August 2026, and the SEAM escrow failure involved more than $16 million. PLS has used independent licensed escrow since 2017.
For the full budget, see the cost of surrogacy. To compare Minnesota with other states, see surrogacy laws by state.
Sources
- Minnesota court practice on parentage orders in gestational surrogacy. No Minnesota surrogacy statute applies. Pending review by Minnesota counsel.
- Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act (2005) and Equality for Every Family Act (2025), Illinois General Assembly. Pending review by counsel.