Florida AG James Uthmeier Says He Wants to Go Beyond the Six-Week Ban, Presses Case Arguing Surrogacy Contracts Are Unconstitutional

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says he wants to push the state's abortion policy beyond its current six-week ban and toward fetal personhood, the legal idea that embryos and fetuses hold the same rights as people who have been born. At the same time, his office is pressing a Broward County surrogacy case in which it argues that surrogacy contracts, legal in Florida since 1993, are unconstitutional. A state appeals court hearing in that case is set for January, CBS News Miami reported.

The comments and the court fight, first laid out in detail by CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede on Oct. 25, come about a week before Election Day, when Uthmeier, a Republican, is on the ballot against Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez, a former state senator. It is not clear how the positions will play with voters.

What Uthmeier said on the podcast

Uthmeier made the remarks in a video podcast with anti-abortion activist Lila Rose, founder of the group Live Action, that was released Oct. 14. According to CBS News Miami, he said he would use every tool available to his office to eliminate abortion clinics in Florida. Referring to the six-week law, which he called the "heartbeat bill," he said he wanted to take on what he called the enemy using any tool his office has "above and beyond just our heartbeat bill."

He told Rose that fetal personhood would bring the debate front and center, and when asked whether a fetus is a human being, he answered "unequivocally yes." Asked whether abortion would end in Florida in his lifetime, he said, "I certainly pray so."

Under a fetal personhood framework, the procedure could be barred in all cases, including pregnancies resulting from rape and incest, for which Florida's current law allows limited exceptions. Legal observers quoted by CBS News Miami said such a standard would also likely restrict in vitro fertilization and surrogacy, both of which can involve the creation of embryos that are not carried to term.

The Broward surrogacy case

The surrogacy dispute began as what attorneys described as a routine family court matter. Two men from France contracted with a Florida woman to carry their child. She was represented by her own attorney, and CBS News Miami reported there has been no allegation that she was coerced. As the birth approached, the fathers asked a Broward family court to recognize their parental rights, a common step in Florida surrogacy cases. The proceedings were sealed.

The day after the baby was born, Uthmeier's office filed an emergency motion to intervene. It is not publicly known how the attorney general learned of the sealed case. The judge, Marlon Weiss, granted the fathers' petition but wrote in his order that if unborn children are entitled to personhood, they cannot be the subject of a contract for ownership, according to coverage of the ruling. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Weiss to the Broward Circuit Court in 2025 and elevated him in September to the 4th District Court of Appeal, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

In a sealed brief described by CBS News Miami, Uthmeier argues that surrogacy contracts violate the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, because one person cannot contract for another. The brief cites Bible verses and asserts that a fetus is a person. On the podcast, Uthmeier put the argument plainly: "If you are buying and selling a human being, what is that? That's slavery."

The child at the center of the case is no longer in the United States. CBS News Miami reported that the French fathers adopted the infant with the birth mother's consent and took the baby to France. Uthmeier has nonetheless continued to press the case, and a hearing is scheduled in a state appeals court in January. Observers believe his goal is to get the question of fetal personhood before the Florida Supreme Court, CBS News Miami reported.

Florida's surrogacy law

Florida has allowed gestational surrogacy by statute since 1993, and the state has become a destination for intended parents from other states and other countries. The Legislature tightened the rules earlier this year, barring people from China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Russia and North Korea from hiring surrogates in Florida. That change did not affect the French fathers in the Broward case.

A ruling that surrogacy contracts are unenforceable would reach far beyond one family. Clinics, agencies and attorneys arrange surrogacy agreements across the state, and many involve embryos created through IVF.

Reaction from family law attorneys

Karen Persis, a family law attorney representing a coalition opposed to Uthmeier's position, told CBS News Miami she was shocked by the slavery argument, calling it a "pretty significant misunderstanding of how surrogacy operates." She warned that treating embryos as legal persons could upend egg donation, sperm donation, embryo donation and IVF in Florida.

Charlotte Danciu, who has handled surrogacy cases for 30 years, said she had never seen a state attorney general get involved in one. She described his efforts as stunning and said they angered her.

Uthmeier's office has declined to discuss the specifics of the case publicly because it involves a child, according to earlier coverage of the dispute.

A record on abortion

The positions fit a long record. DeSantis appointed Uthmeier attorney general in February 2025, after he served as the governor's chief of staff. In 2024 he led the administration's campaign against Amendment 4, the citizen initiative that would have protected abortion access until viability, around 22 weeks. The measure won 57% of the vote, short of the 60% required to amend the Florida Constitution. Uthmeier called that campaign the most important fight the administration had ever been in, and DeSantis has credited him with helping defeat both Amendment 4 and Amendment 3, the recreational marijuana measure.

As attorney general, Uthmeier intervened in the case of a 17-year-old seeking a judicial waiver to obtain an abortion without parental consent and challenged the constitutionality of Florida's judicial waiver law; an appeals court struck the law down, CBS News Miami reported. He is also suing Planned Parenthood, alleging that it misleads women about the safety of the abortion pill. PolitiFact rated his claims about the pill Mostly False, finding he had cherry-picked studies. Uthmeier has said a verdict could leave the organization liable for billions of dollars.

At his swearing-in in February 2025, he quoted Proverbs, saying that doing "what is right and just" before the Lord is greater than sacrifice.

The attorney general's race

Rodriguez, a Miami Democrat and former state senator, is challenging Uthmeier in the Nov. 3 general election, the first time Uthmeier has faced voters for the office. The race has also been shaped by the Hope Florida controversy over a $10 million Medicaid settlement payment, which Democrats have featured in advertising against Uthmeier and in which the DeSantis administration denies any wrongdoing. Neither campaign's response to the surrogacy arguments was included in the CBS News Miami report.

What's next

Early voting continues in most Florida counties through Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Regardless of the election result, the surrogacy appeal is scheduled for a January hearing. If the appeals court rules on the constitutional questions, the losing side could seek review from the Florida Supreme Court, the forum where Uthmeier is widely expected to press the fetal personhood argument. Any ruling adopting that theory would carry consequences for surrogacy, IVF and abortion law across Florida.