Cuomo began advocating for paid surrogacy, or commercial gestational surrogacy, last year. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Surrogates in New York state will be protected by some of the strictest safeguards in the nation, as laid out in legislation legalizing paid gestational surrogacy that passed last month.
Until April 2, when the measure passed in the state’s budget amid the coronavirus pandemic, New York was one of three states, alongside Louisiana and Michigan, that still outlawed the practice.
Advocates had been trying unsuccessfully to lift the ban since 2012.
"New York's surrogacy ban is based in fear not love, and it's past time we updated our antiquated laws to help LGBTQ couples and people struggling with fertility use commonplace reproductive technology to start families," Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Cuomo began advocating for paid surrogacy, or commercial gestational surrogacy, last year.
New Yorkers will now legally be able to arrange and carry out paid surrogacy contracts beginning on Feb. 15, 2021.
The state’s paid surrogacy law includes the Surrogates’ Bill of Rights, the strongest protections for surrogates in the nation:
“Today, we bring New York law in line with the needs of modern families, while simultaneously enacting the strongest protections in the nation for surrogates," said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (Scarsdale), who first introduced the bill in 2012, according to the Daily News.
Paulin first began fighting for the issue in 2006.
“This law will allow families to avoid much of that pain by giving them the opportunity to have a family in New York and not travel around the country, incurring exorbitant costs simply because they want to be parents," Paulin said in a statement to NBC News.
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