A piece of legislation addressing parentage in Massachusetts has received the governor's signature — updating laws with an eye on inclusivity.
Going into effect at the start of 2025, "an Act to Ensure Legal Parentage Equality," also known as the "Massachusetts Parentage Act," was signed with enthusiasm by Governor Maura Healey.
Joined by advocates and legislators for a ceremonial signing on Beacon Hill Monday, Healey praised the legislation, which her administration says will "ensure the rights and protections for parents who use surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization and assisted reproduction."
The first major update to the state's parentage laws in some 40 years, the bill adds language to statutes on the books to include parents who have children via reproductive technologies.
“It takes a lot to create, to support, to grow a family - and your courage has ensured that future families will not have to endure some of the same experiences that some of you may have had to endure,” Healey said, flanked by longtime advocates of the reform, like Democratic State Representative Sarah Peake of Provincetown. “Your feelings of exclusion, the unnecessary obstacles and barriers that were there, all the while you're trying to do something good, something great."
One of the champions of the bill, Democratic State Senator Julian Cyr of Truro, said before, the laws were largely "heterocentric" and a concern for tens of thousands of families living in Massachusetts.
He said Monday that the bill clearing the finish line is especially personal.
"Because of this law going into effect - my sister and sister-in-law are pregnant with their second kid - my sister-in-law’s not going to have to legally adopt her soon-to-be-daughter… because of the actions we've taken here today,” he said.
Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, said that despite Massachusetts leading the nation when it came to marriage equality some 20 years ago, gaps remained when it came to statutory protections.
“I think we all know that family is foundational, and there are so many ways to have a family. For too long, unfortunately, the law has not recognized all of us,” Crozier told those gathered Monday.
Describing experiences seen at her law practice, Crozier said families in the past have had to jump through "maddening and humiliating hoops to be protected."
"Children were unnecessarily swept into the family regulation system, they were taken out of state, away from a loving parent without recourse - children languished for years without the protection of parentage, but no more, no more,” she said. “Now, all children and families have equality in parentage. The Massachusetts Parentage Act truly means dignity, it means security, it means equal protection under the law. It means access to essential benefits, particularly economic benefits, that everyone needs to thrive, like access to health care, access to social security benefits, medical decision-making, and so many more.”
The Healey administration described the act as a means to codify protections for families regardless of factors such as marital status, sexual orientation of the parents or the circumstances of a child's birth.
The bill "modernizes the language in statutes governing parentage to make it more inclusive, swapping out words or phrases, such as 'paternity' for 'parentage' and 'child born out of wedlock' for 'nonmarital child.'”
Versions of the bill received unanimous approval from the House and Senate, and was one of several comprise bills to clear conference committee and pass during an all-night, chaotic end to the formal session at the time.
According to GLAD, with the bill signed, Massachusetts became “the final state in New England” as well as the 13th in the nation to adopt such parentage protections.
