08 Apr 2020 International Intended Parents: Getting Home with Your Baby During COVID-19
Join assisted reproductive technology attorneys Rich Vaughn and Molly O’Brien of International Fertility Law Group as they share information and advice for international intended parents planning to travel for the births of their babies via surrogacy in the United States during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Getting...
02 Apr 2020 New York Ends Surrogacy Ban, Enacts Surrogate Bill of Rights
The New York state legislature passed today a landmark bill that will end New York’s three-decade ban on compensated surrogacy, establishing a surrogate bill of rights and streamlining the parental establishment process for intended parents. As we wrote last year, reproductive health experts and advocates were...
31 Mar 2020 New York Governor Cuomo Reverses Hospital COVID-19 Ban on Birth Partners
Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a directive over the weekend lifting a ban on visitors for pregnant women giving birth in New York State, reversing policies implemented by two large New York hospital systems in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to CNN....
29 Mar 2020 UK Asks Intended Parents to 'Avoid Becoming Pregnant' During COVID-19 Pandemic
British and European reproductive health experts are advising those undertaking fertility treatments to "avoid becoming pregnant" during the COVID-19 pandemic, as numbers of infections mount and health resources are stretched to the limit. Guidance issued March 18 by the British Fertility Society (BFS) and the Association...
25 Mar 2020 Spouses, Partners Banned from Delivery Rooms in New York COVID-19 Response
As the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the daily lives of millions, pregnant women are facing the prospect of delivering without the comfort of spouses, partners or doulas at their sides. Two large New York City hospital networks—New York-Presbyterian and Mt. Sinai Health System—announced new...
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 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...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
18 Jun 2019 Left Blocks Bill to Overturn NY Surrogacy Ban
Even as it approaches the finish line, legislation to finally end New York state’s ban on gestational surrogacy is facing vocal opposition from an unexpected source: the feminist left. We began writing about growing expectations that the state of New York was progressing toward ending its...
10 Apr 2019 New York Extends Insurance Coverage for IVF
The state of New York on April 1 passed a measure requiring insurance policies covering employee groups of 100 or larger to include coverage of in vitro fertilization, becoming the 10th state to require IVF coverage. The measure also includes expanded coverage for fertility preservation...
04 Apr 2019 Obstacles to Intercountry Adoption Add to Appeal of Assisted Reproduction
Growing obstacles to intercountry adoption have drastically reduced the number of children adopted by U.S. residents from other countries—making assisted reproduction an increasingly appealing alternative for many seeking to fulfill their dreams of parenthood. The number of children from other countries adopted by U.S. residents plunged...
19 Mar 2019 Movement to End New York Surrogacy Ban Advances
New York advocates for reproductive freedom report progress in their efforts to end the state’s nearly three-decade ban on commercial surrogacy agreements. Despite ongoing organized opposition from far-right and anti-choice forces, on February 27, 2019, the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee approved The Child Parent...
27 Feb 2019 Judge Rules Twins' Citizenship Not Contingent on Genetics
Amid so many gravely concerning headlines about immigration recently, at least one immigration story had a happy ending last week: A federal judge overturned the government’s earlier decision to deny U.S. citizenship to a twin boy born via IVF and surrogacy—while granting citizenship to his...
25 Feb 2019 Vogue Cites California Dominance in Reproductive Technology
Vogue's March 2019 issue spotlighting California as the "center of everything" includes the article, "Fertile Ground," in which writer Jancee Dunn explores the state's role as a fount of advancements in assisted reproductive technology. As I discussed with the writer, the advantage probably dates back...
29 Jan 2019 American Bar Association Ratifies 2019 ART Model Act
I’ve spent the past few days at the American Bar Association’s Midyear Meeting in sunny Las Vegas. It is always an honor and privilege to represent the ABA Assisted Reproduction Technology Committee (ART) and the Family Law Section in front of the ABA’s House of...
