Surrogacy

Bill would end ban on compensated surrogacy in New York

Source 13 Wham

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — There’s a new push to repeal a New York state law making it illegal to compensate a woman for carrying a child for another person.

New York is now one of a handful of states that ban surrogacy agreements, meaning prospective parents cannot hire or compensate a surrogate for carrying their child.

Legislation to permit and regulate surrogacy agreements has failed to get a final vote in Albany for years but supporters are optimistic about its chances now that Democrats control both legislative chambers.

Advocates gathered at the state Capitol Wednesday to highlight the effort.
The bills’ Senate sponsor, Manhattan Democrat Brad Hoylman, now has two daughters who were born to surrogates. Hoylman said New York’s law forced him and his husband to travel out of state to find a surrogate.

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Surrogacy

Same-sex couple in Virginia paves the way for surrogacy

Source WUSA9

MCLEAN, Va. — A same-sex McLean couple who had to fight for the right to raise their youngest child, helped push through new legislation that will streamline the surrogacy process. Their goal is to help other families in Virginia.

Three-year-old Jacob is Jay Timmons’ and Rick Olson’s third child. All three of their children were born through surrogates. Their older two daughters are both biologically related to one of the dads (the kids call Rick “Daddy-O”).

The couple, who married in 2008, did not plan for more children after they had the girls. Then a female friend who also used a surrogate offered her embryos because she and her spouse were not planning to have more children, but did not want the embryos destroyed.

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Uncategorized

Virginia sends bill expanding surrogacy, erasing ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from some laws to gov’s desk

Source Life Site News

RICHMOND, Virginia, February 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A bill dramatically expanding surrogacy and erasing the words “father,” “mother,” “husband,” and “wife” from certain laws has passed both chambers of the Virginia legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature.

The bill, HB 1979, expands the availability of surrogacy and defines parenthood based on “intent” rather than biology. The Virginia House of Delegates approved HB 1979 on February 5; the state Senate passed a version 28 to 12 on February 18, and then the House approved the Senate version on February 20.

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Egg Donor, Surrogacy

Judge grants citizenship to twin son of gay couple

Source Four States

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A federal judge in California ruled Thursday that a twin son of a gay married couple has been an American citizen since birth, handing a defeat to the U.S. government, which had only granted the status to his brother.
The State Department was wrong to deny citizenship to 2-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks because U.S. law does not require a child to show a biological relationship with their parents if their parents were married at the time of their birth, District Judge John F. Walter found.

A lawsuit filed by the boys’ parents, Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks, sought the same rights for Ethan that his brother, Aiden, has as a citizen.

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