Nebraska Acts to Void Birth-for-Fee Pacts

LINCOLN, Neb. — A bill to declare surrogate mother contracts void in Nebraska was approved 41 to 1 on Friday by the Legislature.

State Sen. Shirley Marsh cast the lone no vote in the state’s one-body Legislature, saying she was concerned that childless couples would not have surrogate birth as an option. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ernie Chambers, said the law simply says that “the courts will not enforce the contracts.”