Minnesota lawmakers did not pass a bill allowing people to be bought and sold

A video of a Republican Minnesota state representative’s fiery speech has gone viral on social media with claims that Democratic lawmakers in the state passed a bill that would allow humans to be bought and sold.

“Democrats vote to buy and sell humans! Rep. Walter Hudson calls out the evil!” the on-screen text of a TikTok video that’s been shared more than 12,000 times and received more than 2,000 comments since April 30 says. 

In the videos, Hudson says, “Are human beings yours to buy and sell? Are they? Can you answer that question?” 

Multiple VERIFY readers, including Patricia, reached out to ask if Minnesota lawmakers really passed a bill that would make it legal to buy and sell people. 

THE CLAIM

Did Minnesota lawmakers pass a bill that would make it legal to buy and sell people?

THE SOURCES

• Minnesota House File 3567
• House Floor speech and social media posts from Minnesota State Rep. Walter Hudson (R-Albertville)
• Minnesota State. Rep Athena Hollins (D-FL-St. Paul)
• Minnesota State Sen. Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley)
• American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Legal Professional Group

THE ANSWER

No, Minnesota lawmakers did not pass a bill that would make it legal to buy and sell people. The Uniform Parentage Act, which passed in the Minnesota House but has not become law, would establish a legal framework for surrogacy agreements in the state.

WHAT WE FOUND

Minnesota lawmakers did not pass a bill that would allow humans to be bought and sold. House File 3567, or The Uniform Parentage Act, would actually create a legal framework for surrogacy agreements in Minnesota.

Surrogacy refers to a type of pregnancy in which a person, who is called a surrogate, carries and delivers a child for another person or a couple. 

Surrogates are impregnated through the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Doctors create an embryo by fertilizing eggs from the intended mother or an egg donor with sperm from the intended father or sperm donor, Yale Medicine explains.

The clip of Minnesota State Rep. Walter Hudson (R-Albertville) in the viral videos is from a speech that he gave on the House Floor in opposition to House File 3567. But his comments are shown out of context in those videos.

In that speech, Hudson likened the practice of what he has called “for-profit surrogacy” to the buying and selling of people. Some surrogacy arrangements include compensation for surrogates, which the Uniform Parentage Act says would be allowed under Minnesota law.

Hudson said on social media that he isn’t opposed to surrogacy itself, but he has a “problem with for-profit surrogacy,” which he says “exploits vulnerable women and commodifies children.”

The Uniform Parentage Act, which passed the Minnesota House 68-61 on April 29, “aims to make it easier and clearer for Minnesotans to determine who is legally considered a parent when a child is born through assisted reproduction (like IVF) or surrogacy,” the bill’s author, Minnesota State. Rep. Athena Hollins (DFL-St. Paul), said in a press release. It still needs to pass in the Senate and receive the governor’s signature to become law.

Right now, Minnesota doesn’t have any laws that specifically allow or prohibit surrogacy, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Legal Professional Group explains. That means surrogacy agreements can still happen in Minnesota, but they aren’t regulated under state law. 

In some cases, Minnesota law’s silence on surrogacy forces parents to go through lengthy and costly adoption processes to become legal parents to their own children, Hollins said. 

The Uniform Parentage Act would establish a framework for determining parentage, or the legal relationship between a child and their parent, and create various requirements for surrogacy agreements. Those include qualifications for people looking to be surrogates and the intended parents. 

The bill would also establish that surrogacy agreements may “provide for the payment of consideration and reasonable expenses.”

If the bill is voted into law, Minnesota wouldn’t be the only state where surrogates could be paid. Washington, Nevada and California are among some states that allow for surrogates to be compensated. 

Other opponents of the bill have made claims similar to Hudon’s about surrogacy. During testimony before the Minnesota Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee in March, Rebecca Delahunt, who serves as director of public policy for the Minnesota Family Council, likened surrogacy agreements to slavery. 

In response, Minnesota State Sen. Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley), who authored the Senate version of the bill, said she finds it “unbelievable” that a testifier would “liken the use of assisted reproduction and surrogacy to slavery, let alone make that comparison the crux of their argument.”

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: Legisladores de Minnesota no aprobaron un proyecto de ley que permite comprar y vender personas