Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has vetoed a bill to set out the legal rights of adoptive parents, child and surrogate mother when a woman carries and gives birth to a baby for someone else.
Legislators worked out some questions that prompted his veto of a similar bill last year, Jindal wrote in his veto message Saturday.
“However, despite the good intentions and hard efforts of the author, this legislation still raises concerns for many in the pro-life community,” he wrote. “Thus, I cannot in good conscience, sign this bill.”
Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, said he does not know whether he will ask the Legislature to override Jindal’s veto during the session’s two remaining days.
“If the body wants to do it we’ll do it. I’m one of 70 votes that I need,” he said in a phone interview.
A veto override would need 70 votes in the House and 26 in the Senate.
The House voted 72-7 for the bill. But the Senate vote was 22-11.
Louisiana law has few regulations governing surrogacy. It isn’t illegal but contracts with surrogate mothers cannot be enforced in court, and the woman who gives birth is legally presumed to be the child’s mother.
Jindal vetoed last year’s bill because of moral and ethical objections raised by social conservatives and religious leaders. Lopinto worked with both groups on compromises that removed many of their objections, but Louisiana’s Catholic bishops remained opposed to the bill.
Lopinto’s bill also spelled out who could be a surrogate mother.
But during Senate debate, Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, argued against it, saying it could encourage unmarried women to get pregnant.
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