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Parentage Act
Status
Signed into Law
An Act to Ensure Legal Parentage Equality
The Parentage Act dismantles archaic legal barriers to basic parenting responsibilities for modern families. It allows parents to legally attend and make decisions during medical appointments, manage a child’s finances, participate in educational decisions, and provide authorizations for a child’s travel. The Parentage Act was signed into law by Governor Healey on August 12, 2024.
Highlights
- Makes critical updates to laws related to assisted reproduction, including surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
- Outlines rights, requirements, procedures and safeguards for parents, donors, surrogates, and others involved in the process.
- Establishes clear paths to parentage for individuals or couples utilizing assisted reproduction and surrogacy in order to provide legal recognition and status prior to the child’s birth.
- Adds safeguards against abuse and protections for domestic violence survivors and military parents.
""The Massachusetts Parentage Act is personal: LGBTQ+ families like mine face excessive and expensive hoops just to ensure our children have the security of legal parentage. This bill being signed into law marks a critical step to guarantee that all children can benefit from the stability of a legal parent-child relationship no matter how they came to be in this world."
- Senator Julian Cyr (D-Truro)
- Senator Julian Cyr (D-Truro)
