Women who choose to become a surrogate come from all walks of life. They may be a stay at home mom, nurse, businesswomen, etc., but some women interested in becoming a surrogate in Florida may be active duty in the military. When being matched with a surrogate, you may wonder if it ok to proceed with a surrogate where the surrogate herself is an active duty status. Proceeding with a surrogate who is active duty is very risky and requires a comprehensive analysis which varies depending on various factors such as which branch she serves in and her rank. Generally speaking, the miliary restricts employment outside of the terms of military service and while acting as a surrogate is not "employment", in the eyes of the military, it could directly violate specific or implied protocols of the applicable military department. The different departments of the military all have their own regulations regarding the parameters on what a person can do outside their scope of service as an active member in the applicable military department.  Some departments specifically address active members acting as a surrogate and strictly prohibit it such as in the army, navy, air force and marine corps. For example, the Army regulations specifically provide, "(9) Active Duty Service Members are not authorized to provide surrogate pregnancy services." The prohibition on serving as a surrogate while active duty is regardless of whether the surrogate is in deployable status. Some departments in the military are silent on serving as a surrogate however silence on the ability to serve as a surrogate while active duty does not mean that it is prudent to proceed with surrogacy while active duty. While active duty women are non-deployable within a certain time period after having a baby, it is a limited period of time so deployment would eventually be an issue, and even if a woman recently had a baby and wants to proceed with being a surrogate, this still could result in a direct violation of military guidelines. Serving as a surrogate while active duty (regardless of deployment status) poses risk to the surrogate and to the intended parents. A surrogate in violation of her military regulations could result in various detrimental consequences such as the surrogate being discharged from the military with less than honorable discharge (which has numerous negative implications such as impacts on insurance and possibly future employment of the surrogate) and confinement on a military base or other consequences for violating federal law.  These consequences could irreparably impact the surrogate and her family for violating the terms of her military obligations. Since laws regarding surrogacy within the United States and around the world vary from permissive to strictly prohibited, if a surrogate is deployed or is on controlled tour and has to relocate from her original state of residence, this could jeopardize the parental rights of the parties in the surrogacy process. If an active duty surrogate proceeds with the surrogacy process, this also has severe risk to the intended parents as the surrogate could be deployed outside her state of residence or even outside of the United States which could severely impair the parties' parental rights and obligations in the surrogacy process. An additional risk is that a surrogate on active duty is the surrogate's requirement to maintain Tricare health insurance which has further negative impacts on the surrogacy related medical expenses and could pose additional financial risks to the intended parents. Parties proceeding with an active duty surrogate may seek to obtain approval from the person's commander and JAG office, however, obtaining written permission to proceed with surrogacy may be denied or the department may be reluctant to provide such authorization in writing. It is more common for a potential surrogate's spouse to be active military which requires additional analysis such as if the spouse is deployed outside the state of residence or outside of the United States, whether the surrogate is willing to remain in her state of residence until the surrogacy journey is complete.