21 Mar 2020 Is COVID-19 a Risk to Pregnancy, Surrogates and Newborns? NEW INFO
As the states of California and New York impose stringent shutdowns and concerns about travel restrictions and postponed procedures rise, intended parents and surrogates are also asking about potential health risks to pregnant surrogates and babies during the coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic. ...
20 Mar 2020 More COVID-19 Pregnancy Information for Intended Parents, Surrogates
Here is more information for intended parents and surrogates about the coronavirus disease COVID-19 and what experts are saying about its potential impact on pregnancy. Thanks to our colleague Dr. John Norian of HRC Fertility for sharing this informative Q&A, much of which is drawn from...
11 Mar 2020 New Law Requires IVF Insurance for 2.5 Million New Yorkers
Under a new law effective January 1, about half of insured New Yorkers—some 2.5 million people—now have access to insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization, or IVF, for treatment of infertility. Passed in 2019 as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2020 proposal, the law requires large...
10 Mar 2020 Worried Surrogacy Is Exploitative? Try Talking to A Surrogate!
As sometimes happens, I had one of those days recently during which events seemed to highlight for me some of the most critical issues in the field of assisted reproductive technology (ART) law today. I traveled out of state a few days ago for a series...
21 Feb 2020 Swiss Voters Reject Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination
Earlier this month the people of Switzerland voted by a surprisingly wide margin to make it illegal to discriminate publicly based on a person’s sexual orientation. The 63 percent to 37 percent gap was larger than anticipated, providing a big boost for LGBTQ rights in...
14 Feb 2020 New York Continues Push to End Surrogacy Ban as New States Enact Them
Governor Andrew Cuomo is standing by his commitment to eliminate the three-decade ban on commercial, or compensated, surrogacy in New York, one of two states in the nation that currently criminalize surrogacy. On February 11, Cuomo and advocates for reproductive freedom launched the “Love Makes A...
10 Feb 2020 Surrogacy Education Down Under Kicks Off IFLG's 2020 Travel Plans
I was excited and honored to have the opportunity to speak on U.S. surrogacy laws at two Growing Family conferences on February 8 in Sydney and on February 9 in Melbourne, Australia. Both full-day conferences were parent-curated surrogacy education events designed to provide potential intended...
27 Jan 2020 New Jersey Requires Insurers to Cover Fertility Preservation
New Jersey advocates for reproductive health are celebrating the recent passage of S2 133, a fertility preservation statute signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on January 13, according to a statement from American Society for Reproductive Medicine, or ASRM. The new law requires that state-licensed...
20 Jan 2020 Tennessee Adoption Law Among Surge of Discriminatory New ‘Religious Liberty’ Laws
Tennessee legislators passed a law this month that allows faith-based adoption and foster agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people without jeopardizing their public funding. Governor Bill Lee has said he will sign the law, which was passed by the Tennessee House in April 2019, then pulled...
15 Jan 2020 Uterus Transplant Donors Motivated to Give Gift of Motherhood
Pennsylvania researchers celebrated recently the birth of a healthy baby boy to a woman who received a uterus transplant from a deceased donor—only the second successful procedure and birth of its kind in the United States. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the mother, Jennifer Gobrecht, learned...
02 Jan 2020 Cuomo Vows to Take on New York Surrogacy Ban Again in 2020
In advance of his January 8 state-of-the-state address, Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised to renew his efforts to end New York’s statewide surrogacy ban in 2020 and to provide the strongest protections for surrogates and intended parents anywhere in the U.S. Cuomo and other progressive legislators...
07 Dec 2019 Anti-ART Judges Threaten Reproductive Rights for Future Generations
For decades, assisted reproductive technology has been improving, advancing and expanding the potential for previously infertile people to become biological parents. But the recent influx of right-wing and anti-reproductive freedom judicial appointees has many people worried that legislative progress and technological advancements could be thwarted...
13 Nov 2019 RESOLVE ‘Night of Hope’ Celebrates Advocates for Infertility Treatment
I had the great pleasure Monday night, November 11, to attend the 2019 RESOLVE Night of Hope dinner in New York. The Night of Hope is the official awards gala and fundraiser for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, which is dedicated to improving the lives...
01 Nov 2019 Georgia Abortion Ban Is Latest to Face Federal Court Challenge
Earlier this month a federal judge temporarily blocked a Georgia law that would effectively ban abortion in the state, the latest volley in an onslaught of new state laws designed to challenge, weaken and ultimately overturn a woman’s right to choose. As reported in The Washington...
18 Oct 2019 Family Building with ART Is Hot Topic at Taiwan LGBT Pride 2019
To all my friends and colleagues in Taiwan, Happy Pride 2019! I will be there soon to celebrate with you and to participate, along with the organization Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy, in Taiwan Pride 2019, October 25 through October 27 in Taipei. In May 2019,...
15 Oct 2019 France Takes Another Step to Legalize IVF for Lesbians
The French lower legislative body, the National Assembly, voted today in favor of a law that would legalize in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technologies for single women and lesbians. The bill, which is part of a broader bioethics bill, will go next...
09 Oct 2019 France Recognizes Intended Parents After 19 Years of Litigation
After 19 years of court battles and legal ups and downs, the French Court of Final Appeal has recognized Sylvie and Dominique Mennesson as the legal parents of their twin daughters, born via surrogacy in California in 2000. The court issued its decision recognizing the Mennessons’...
03 Oct 2019 Slow-Moving Irish ART Law Reform Would Severely Limit Surrogacy
Ireland, the traditionally Catholic country where surrogacy has existed for decades in a legal limbo, with no laws on the books, is slow-walking a badly needed overhaul of its reproductive technology laws. With the Irish legislature, the Oireachtas, at odds over historically divisive issues such...
30 Aug 2019 France Legalizes IVF for Lesbians, Single Women
In a partial but powerful advance in the movement for reproductive freedom in France, French President Emmanuel Macron’s government last month drafted a new bioethics law that would legalize in vitro fertilization, or IVF, for single women and lesbians. In a society historically heavily influenced...
26 Aug 2019 Uniform Laws Needed to Regulate Abandoned Embryos
Over the past few decades, technological advances have made the miracle of reproduction and parenthood accessible to thousands of people who in an earlier time would have remained childless—people with genetic conditions, injuries or illnesses that result in infertility, people who are unpartnered or unmarried,...
14 Aug 2019 Utah Supreme Court Strikes Statute Denying Surrogacy for Gay Dads
“This appeal comes to us unopposed,” reads the first sentence of the Utah State Supreme Court’s August 1 decision striking down a statute that denied same-sex married couples equal rights to participate in surrogacy agreements automatically afforded to married heterosexual couples. In a rare sign...
02 Aug 2019 Children Born Abroad Via Surrogacy Denied U.S. Citizenship
The conflict and division surrounding immigration in the United States have spread beyond border crossings and asylum claims. Based on a narrow interpretation of existing law, U.S. authorities have not only denied citizenship to the children of married U.S. citizens, they are applying the law...
22 Jul 2019 1st U.S. Birth Via Uterine Transplant Offers New infertility Treatment Option
U.S. fertility specialists and reproductive advocates are celebrating the June birth of the first healthy baby delivered in the United States following a successful uterine transplant from a deceased donor. The baby was born via cesarean section last month to a woman at the Cleveland Clinic,...
12 Jul 2019 International Conference Addresses Human Rights of Children Born via Foreign Surrogacy
I had the great honor recently to represent the American Bar Association and its Assisted Reproduction Technology Committee at the first International Surrogacy Conference, hosted last month by Cambridge University’s Selwyn College, the American Bar Association Section of Family Law, and the International Academy of...
