New York surrogate law now revised

Next February, the new Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA) goes into effect.

The bill abandons New York’s previous ban on paid gestational surrogacy, impacting those having children born with assistance from a gestational carrier who doesn’t provide an egg and is not genetically related to the child she carries.

“The current law does not adequately protect intended parents,” said Anate Brauer, a reproductive endocrinologist and IVF director at Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) New York. “Having to travel for care and having to experience a pregnancy with a carrier from a distance makes the process more expensive and emotionally difficult. This is a positive change that will have a tremendous impact,” she said.

Beth McAvey, a reproductive endocrinologist and IVF doctor at RMA NY and the medical director at RMA Long Island IVF, as well as an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, says the new law is trifold. “There are protections for intended parents, as well as for the child born from third-party assisted reproduction, and it protects a surrogate’s bill of rights,” she said.

The bill sets forth “prebirth orders,” clear and new legal procedures that make intended parents the legal guardian from the moment a child is born.

Surrogates, who must be at least 21, will have more decision-making regarding their health and with the pregnancy. The bill also gives surrogates the right to have health insurance covering her through pregnancy and 12 months after delivery, life insurance and the right to have independent counsel, all paid for by the intended parent or parents.

Minimum compensation for a surrogate will be $35,000 in addition to those costs, although experts caution that the total is often in the region of $100,000 to $150,000.