30 Dec 2020 COVID-19 Vaccination for Surrogates, Update for Intended Parents
Join Rich Vaughn of International Fertility Law Group, Dr. Said Daneshmand of the San Diego Fertility Center and Darlene Pinkerton of A Perfect Match surrogacy agency for a discussion on the latest guidance on COVID-19 vaccination during surrogacy, new vaccination and travel provisions in surrogacy...
10 Sep 2020 Are Surrogacy Contracts Enforceable?
Laws governing surrogacy vary widely from state to state in the U.S. Some states have enacted laws rendering surrogacy contracts unenforceable in whole or in part, and a few states deem compensated surrogacy illegal, essentially shutting down surrogacy within the state almost entirely. Engaging an attorney...
01 Sep 2020 How to Find a Gestational Surrogate: Making the Right Match
For intended parents building a family via IVF and surrogacy, finding the right gestational surrogate is essential. Let IFLG answer all your surrogacy law questions....
15 Aug 2020 International Surrogacy Options in the United States
Join Molly O'Brien of International Fertility Law Group and surrogacy professionals from around the world for a recent Growing Families Webinar broadcast in August 2020, discussing international surrogacy options in the United States. Expert guest speakers discussed topics including; surrogate and donor screening and matching...
15 Aug 2020 Surrogacy During COVID-19 Update for Intended Parents, Surrogates and Donors
Join Rich Vaughn of International Fertility Law Group and surrogacy professionals from all over the U.S. for the latest in a series of webinar discussions about the impacts and challenges of surrogacy during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis for intended parents, surrogates, donors and third-party matching...
28 May 2020 ASRM Asks State Department for Travel Ban Exceptions for International Surrogacy
In an effort to support international intended parents and newborns stranded by the coronavirus COVID-19 emergency, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) yesterday sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting limited exceptions to the United States’ travel ban. In the...
03 Apr 2020 ART Attorneys Urge Emergency Action on Newborn Passports During COVID-18 Crisis
Among the many challenges intended parents are facing during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the difficulty in obtaining newborn passports enabling them to take their babies born via surrogacy in the United States back to their home countries. In a still developing story, assisted reproduction attorneys...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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’...
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...
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...
25 Jun 2019 Commission Takes First Steps Toward Ending UK Surrogacy Ban
Great news out of the UK! The UK Law Commission—the body that reviews outdated laws and recommends revisions to the UK government—has made provisional recommendations for reforming the United Kingdom’s surrogacy and parentage/citizenship regulations to better protect the rights of families created via assisted reproductive...
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...
12 Jun 2019 Italy Backtracks on Recognition of Twins' Non-Biological Dad
For more than two years, we’ve been following the case of two Italian dads, a gay couple, who became parents of twin boys via egg donation and surrogacy in Canada, a Canadian birth certificate listing both dads as legal fathers in hand. After years of legal...
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 Jul 2018 Israeli Government Continues Surrogacy Ban for Gay Dads
Tens of thousands of LGBT Israelis and their allies took to the streets Sunday, protesting a new Israeli surrogacy law that denies gay men the right to become parents via surrogacy, even as it gives the green light to lesbian intended parents and single women. Israeli...
01 Jun 2018 New Jersey Surrogacy Law Ends 30-Year Ban
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy just signed a law legalizing gestational carrier agreements, effectively lifting a 30-year ban on surrogacy in the state. Passage of S482, the “New Jersey Gestational Carrier Agreement Act,” is a milestone for reproductive freedom in the state that was home...
06 Mar 2018 Washington Legalizes Compensated Surrogacy
Congratulations to Washington State, which just became the first state to enact UPA 2017, the updated Uniform Parentage Act for use by U.S. states as uniform legislation for parentage laws, including the parentage of children born via assisted reproductive technology. The new law, signed by...
31 Jan 2018 30 Years After Baby M, Task Force Says Lift New York Surrogacy Ban
Nearly 30 years ago, in reaction to the notorious “Baby M” case, several states, including New Jersey, New York, Michigan and Washington, DC, banned paid surrogacy, declaring surrogacy agreements invalid. In April, Washington, DC, overturned its surrogacy ban, in effect since 1993. And in December,...