Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) is introducing a bill on Tuesday that would protect pregnant women in surrogacy arrangements from being forced into abortions.
The bill, called ‘‘Preventing Forced Abortions Act of 2026,” would bar federal courts from enforcing any provision in a surrogacy contract that requires the surrogate mother to have an abortion at the request of any intended parent or party related to the contract. The bill would also require courts to enforce that surrogate mothers are still compensated and not punished for refusing to have an abortion.
“No woman should ever be forced to murder a child because of threats, financial pressure, or a provision buried in a contract,” Congressman Ogles told Breitbart News. “The Preventing Forced Abortions Act ensures that federal courts cannot enforce these coercive clauses or allow intended parents to withhold promised compensation when a surrogate mother chooses life. A contract should never override a child’s right to live.”
In the United States the surrogacy industry is essentially the unregulated wild west, where single adults and straight and gay couples can contract with a woman and pay her large sums of money to carry and give birth to a child, often through a surrogacy agency. There are two kinds of surrogacy: genetic surrogacy, which is when a woman agrees to be a surrogate using her own eggs, usually through a process like artificial insemination; and gestational surrogacy, which is when a woman becomes pregnant through assisted reproduction — typically in vitro fertilization (IVF) — using eggs that are not her own.
As fertility continues to dwindle and reproductive technology gains popularity, the surrogacy industry has arrived at the anticipated moral and ethical dilemmas. Several stories have surfaced in the news of surrogate mothers alleging that intended parents have pressured them to abort the child over anything from the child’s sex, birth defects, the sudden illness of the surrogate, or simply changing their minds about wanting a child. When the women refuse, they have often reported being aggressively sued and suffering extreme distress over who will take custody of the child. (Read examples here, here, here, here, and here).
Ogles’s office noted that it is difficult to determine how many women have faced this kind of pressure because surrogacy disputes are often handled privately.
Marilyn Musgrave, vice president of government affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said:
Women should never be forced or coerced into having an abortion. Yet, recent headlines reveal that this is still a tragic reality women face today. We applaud Rep. Ogles for reintroducing the Preventing Forced Abortions Act to protect women and babies in surrogacy arrangements. Studies have shown that pressure to undergo an abortion is associated with poorer mental health and emotional outcomes for women. Abortion coercion is wrong and this ought to be an area of bipartisan agreement.
Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, told Breitbart News, “Abortion always ends the life of an innocent unborn child, and forced abortions in the context of surrogacy arrangements are no different. Surrogacy all too often places unborn children at risk of abortion when the baby is diagnosed with certain complications.”
She continued, “Congress must pass Rep. Andy Ogles’ Preventing Forced Abortions Act of 2026 to ensure that no child is subject to forced abortion when they aren’t exactly what someone wanted. Children are not commodities to be controlled or products to be perfected,” she added. “They are gifts from God intended to be treasured by one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage.”
“I want to thank Rep. Ogles for standing up for both women and the unborn,” Kelsey Reinhardt, president and CEO of CatholicVote, said.
She continued:
Every abortion treats the woman and child as a means to an end, violating her inherent dignity, and exploits the woman for an agenda of death. Too often the abortion compounds injustice: many coerced cases involve domestic abuse, trafficking, economic threats, or authoritarian policies. The Catholic Church’s social teaching prioritizes protecting the vulnerable from such manipulation. CatholicVote supports the Preventing Forced Abortions Act and encourages all Members of Congress to do the same.”
So far, the bill is cosponsored by Reps. Mary Miller (R-IL), Keith Self (R-TX), and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Ogles introduced a similar bill in 2024, but it did not go further than a referral to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Several pro-life and conservative organizations support the bill, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, CatholicVote, National Right to Life Committee, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, and Students For Life Action.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
