• Relationships & Family > Parenting
• Relationships & Family > Reproductive Justice
• Racial & Economic Justice > Race & Poverty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2020

Advocacy work by Protecting Modern Families Coalition ensured that language modernizing New York law was included in final budget that would allow LGBTQ individuals to use reproductive technology to build loving families

ALBANY, NY – National Center for Lesbian Rights applauds the New York Legislature for passing the 2021 state budget bill, which includes historic language modernizing the state’s surrogacy and assisted reproduction laws and making it easier for LGBTQ individuals to build loving families.

The inclusion of the Child-Parent Security Act in the budget bill marks a major victory for the Protecting Modern Families Coalition, which worked tirelessly to ensure families that who require the use of assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy are supported and protected by law. NY law currently prohibits surrogacy, and its assisted reproduction laws are out-of-date, excluding many low-income families and unmarried parents from its protections, particularly LGBTQ families. 

“We applaud the New York Legislature for passing the Child-Parent Security Act as part of the budget today,” said Cathy Sakimura, NCLR Deputy Director and Family Law Director. “The new law permits the use of surrogacy to create families while also creating the strongest protections in the country for people acting as surrogates. It also modernizes New York’s assisted reproduction laws, including vital protections for low-income parents and unmarried parents, who are often excluded from these laws. New York has long lagged behind the country in protecting families formed through assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and this new law is a bright spot for many parents and children in this difficult time.”   

NCLR is proud to be a member of the Protecting Modern Families Coalition – which includes leading women’s, LGBTQ, religious, and infertility advocacy organizations – and to have provided family law expertise throughout the legislative process.   

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The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national legal organization committed to advancing the human and civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Since its founding, NCLR has maintained a longstanding commitment to racial and economic justice and the LGBTQ community’s most vulnerable. https://www.nclrights.org