Yesterday was a landmark day for families throughout Massachusetts as the Senate approved the Parentage Equity Bill. This important legislation seeks to update parentage laws to be more inclusive and equitable, accommodating the varied family structures of the modern era. Given the advancements in assisted reproduction technology and shifting societal norms, this bill is a significant move towards ensuring equal parental rights, regardless of gender, marital status, or birth circumstances.
Key Provisions of the Parentage Equity Bill:
- Birth Records:Clarifies the information required for birth records to include adoptive parents, ensuring accurate and inclusive documentation.
- Repeals Obsolete Provisions: Repeals a provision that established a child born to a married woman via artificial insemination as the legitimate child of the mother and husband.
- Equal Rights for All Children: Ensures that a child born to unmarried parents has the same rights and protections as one born to married parents.
- Gender-Neutral Language: Updates terminology in the law to be gender-neutral, reflecting modern standards of inclusivity.
- Genetic Testing Guidelines: Clarifies that genetic testing cannot be used to challenge or establish parentage in cases involving donors.
- Parentage Proceedings: Establishes procedures for adjudicating parentage for both marital and nonmarital children, including guidelines for competing claims and challenges to parentage.
- Assisted Reproduction: Sets guidelines for establishing parentage of children born via assisted reproduction and outlines terms for valid surrogacy agreements.
- Surrogacy Agreements: Provides a process for probate and family court proceedings to validate genetic surrogacy agreements and clarifies the enforceability of unvalidated agreements.
- Court Forms: Requires the Trial Court to update or create necessary forms for parentage proceedings.
I want to take the time to highlight the statement of my colleague, Senator Eldridge who spoke on the floor yesterday about the importance of the Parentage Equity Bill.
“Thank you Mr.President and I rise in support of the Parentage Act and want to 1st Senate President for her strong and career long support for LGBTQ rights and supporting LGBTQ parents.
It has been my privilege to serve as the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee and Judiciary for the past three sessions. This legislation, the Parentage Act, has been before the Committee in intense advocacy for the past two sessions. And I want to say that this bill is perhaps one of the most important bills that the Judiciary Committee has heard and I would argue under family law and protecting families is one of the most important piece of legislation this body will take up in some time.
I want to thank, in addition to the Senate President, the Chair of Ways and Means Committee, gentleman from Westport, for bringing this bill to the floor and deeply grateful to the gentleman from Truro, the gentleman from Gloucester, for, as they have each remarked, leading a bipartisan charge for passage of this important legislation.
I also want to express my deep appreciation for the engagement this session with the gentleman from Belmont in bringing this bill to the floor today. And on a Judiciary Committee note, I cannot thank enough, truly, the dedicated work that my legislative director, my legal counsel, David Emmer, has put into this legislation for four years with an incredible amount of negotiation over a bill that is balancing many, many, many different factors, which I hope is not an obstacle to getting this bill to the governor's desk.
I want to lift up the fact that this is legislation that is rewriting a significant parts of our family law and it is particularly important to the LGBTQ community. And I think back to some of the important other pieces of legislation that we have passed in the Senate to protect the LGBTQ community.
I think back to 1992, allowing same sex parents to adopt children, of course, 2003 to 2006 when we were successful in defeating a constitutional amendment to prohibit same sex marriage. And I would argue the Parentage Act is of the same gravity and the same seriousness.
I also just want to thank on a Judiciary Committee note, my very positive working relationship with the House Chair, Gentleman from Winchester, and getting this bill out of committee. I want to highlight that the Senate bill is largely unchanged from the consensus bill.
The Judiciary Committee reported favorably to the House. And this bill ensures equality in parentage for all children, recognizing that families come from all different backgrounds, are made-up of different compositions. And we need to make sure the state provides protections for parents, protections for children, to make sure everyone feels safe in Massachusetts.
I would conceive this bill is creating paths to form families. And that's what this bill is about. First, under voluntary acknowledgement of parentage. The first path to parentage I want to discuss is voluntary acknowledgement of parentage. After a baby is born, the non-birth parent and the birth parent may sign a form agreeing that the non-birth parent is a legal parent.
The voluntary acknowledgement of parenthood form is a weighty one. It establishes legal percentage. Legal parentage for all purposes is the equivalent of a court judgement of parentage.
A validly executed voluntary acknowledgement of parentage form receives full faith and credit in all states, Particularly important as we see some of the attacks on LGBTQ families in other states. Full faith and credit means that every state must recognize the legal parent child relationship the form establishes. Universal recognition should protect Massachusetts families if and when they travel the states that are hostile to LGBTQ plus people so that form exists today. It can be signed at the hospital upon the child's birth, at a city or town clerk's office, or at the Registry of Vital Records. This bill would make important changes to the form.
The current form is difficult to understand, especially for English language learners or those who struggle with literacy skills. The Department of Public Health has explained that the language reflects the muddled state of our parentage laws.
Compare Rhode Island. Rhode Island passed a comprehensive parentage act in 2020.
The Rhode Island voluntary acknowledgement of parentage form uses simple language. It requires the signers to affirm that quote. We agree that we are both parents of the child who is named in the above certification, and next requires the parents to request that their names appear on the birth certificate.
Finally, it requires that the signers affirm that they read the relevant notice. The goal of the Massachusetts Parentage Act is to ensure that more children can be protected with a voluntary acknowledgement of parentage form at the time of birth without delay. This is critically important. The Parentage Act expands access to the voluntary acknowledgement of parenthood form to parents who are married and to parents who have children through assisted reproduction.
Second key piece, consent to assisted reproduction. Another path to parent is consent to assisted reproduction. Many children in Massachusetts are welcomed into their families through assisted reproduction. In fact, Massachusetts has the highest rate of births through assisted reproduction in the country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.
This bill ensures that these children born to married and unmarried parents, born to single parents, born through gamete donation have a clear path to parentage and also have clarity on who is a parent and who is a donor. This bill defines assisted reproduction.
To be clear, this bill does not regulate assisted reproduction healthcare procedures. To understand the second path to parentage consent to assisted reproduction, it's important to briefly understand assisted reproduction.
Assisted reproduction encompasses a variety of medical procedures, some of which can be done at home and some of which would require office visits. LGBTQ families rely upon assisted reproduction to start their families. Non LGBTQ families also use assisted reproduction, including IVF, when there is a difficulty conceiving.
The bottom line is that assisted reproduction is healthcare and children born through this healthcare must be equally protected. Determining when there is consent to assist reproduction is a subject of the Parentage Act Consent can be established to assign documents such as a written agreement or e-mail or text or some other document.
Consent can also be established by evidence of a verbal agreement. This bill aims to make it accessible to establish parentage through consent to assisted reproduction. Finally, the bill provides clear procedural processes to secure court judgement of parentage if desired by the family. The purpose of this path to parentage, consent to assisted reproduction is it a person agrees to be a parent through assisted reproduction and that is what establishes parentage regardless of miracle status or genetic connection.
De facto parentage. An additional path to parentage is de facto parentage. A de facto parent is a person who assumes the day-to-day responsibilities of parenting and caring for a child with the encouragement or acquiescence of the other parent. A de facto parent provides stability to children. Massachusetts courts partially recognized the concept of de facto parentage. As the law developed, it took a bizarre turn.
If a court determines a person is a de facto parent, courts not granted custody or other critical legal rights and obligations to that parent. Instead, they merely grant the de facto parent the right to visitation, not the same as custody. Although I don't doubt that the courts interpreted the law in good faith, limiting a parent to visitation of their child is internally inconsistent. The primary purpose of the de facto parenthood section is to ensure that de facto parents are granted the full rights and responsibilities of a legal parent for the benefit of the child.
Right now, Massachusetts families are very much in need of this path to parentage, Which empirical research by Professor Najim and Professor Jocelyn shows is vital of protecting children of low income families into keeping children with their established caregiver and out of the child welfare system. In creating a procedure for claims of de facto parentage, the core principle that justice delayed is justice denied applies. The time that a de facto parent is litigating their claim is time the child might be improperly separated from a parent who is key to their stability and well-being.
Imagine that delay of having a parent not having that direct contact with that baby or child. The parent of Jack lays out a three-step process for determining if a person is a de facto parent. I will explain the three-step process. The first step is to determine if the petition is sufficient.
This means that all the relevant information is included is a basic administrative step that the court should do quickly and at least within 60 days. The second step is to determine if the petitioner is standing to bring a claim. The court also must make this determination expeditiously and in no more than 60 days. Hearings held under the sufficiency and standing step should typically not be evidentiary hearings.
The admission of the word evidentiary is deliberate. De facto parents, particularly low income or pro SE parents, have to be able to have an achievable and fair standing process and children shouldn't be separated from their parents by burdensome court processes. The third step of the procedure is to make a decision on the merits to determine if the petitioner is a de facto parent.
The ACT lays out A7 factor test. These factors include residents, caregiving and whether the petitioner created a bonded relationship with the child. Again, the purpose of this provision is to provide clear guidance to courts on how to handle these claims. If a party tries to distract the court from swiftly making of sufficiency or standing determination, the court should order the parties to stay focused on the claim before it. The three steps should not be burdensome.
It is intended to ensure that a child is not denied a parent and has access to all the benefits of a legal parent, child relationship, and finally, surrogacy. The final path to parent that I will describe is surrogacy. The ACT ensures that Massachusetts law provides clear guidance on how to establish parents through surrogacy, protecting children, people acting as surrogates, and intended parents.We currently have fallen behind in our protections for families through our lack of any statutory framework.
A surrogate is not a parent. However, the ACT recognizes the rights of surrogates and provide strong protections for them. Specifically, the ACT protects the rights of the surrogate to make their own medical decisions regarding pregnancy. Surrogacy is an extraordinary act of service and it helps others form families. The surrogacy section of this Act is one of which I am especially proud. It is about reproductive choice. As is well known, reproductive choice is not limited to abortion.
It is so much war, including decisions on family building, including surrogacy. The ACT comprehensive legal framework on surrogacy is long overdue. In 2001, the Supreme Court judicial quote called for a quote comprehensive set of laws that deal with the medical, legal and ethical aspects of surrogacy.
At long last, we are addressing this need, Mr. President, in addition to creating past the parentage, as noted in my acknowledgement to the gentleman from Belmont, the Parentage Act is thematically related to the Archaic Laws Bill which we passed earlier this session. This act also repeals archaic laws and references.
One example is section one of chapter 209 CA provision. There reads that quote. The term child born out of wedlock shall refer to any child born to a man and woman who are not married to each other. As written, current law offers an outdated view of parentage.We are changing that too. In this bill. I would like to express my deep appreciation to the Parentage Coalition.
Coalition is comprised of over 60 organizations, many families from across the state, and I'm especially grateful for the tireless work of Polly Crozier of GLAAD, Yale Professor Doug Dejamie, and the inimitable Arlene Isaacson, who I think every single senator here knows well.
I note at the beginning of my remarks that this bill is of monumental significance. Our laws reflect our values. We saw that whether it was the ability for same sex parents, same sex parents to adopt children, whether it was defending same sex marriage or recent efforts to protect reproductive rights, transgender health, informing care, and elder LGBTQ rights activists asked us to recognize their families. This act is the answer in the strongest possible terms.
I urge a yes vote on this legislation.”
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