Governor Healey Signs Parentage Act, Ensuring Equality for All Families in Massachusetts
BOSTON – Governor Maura Healey signed an Act to ensure legal parentage equality, which updates the state’s parentage laws for the first time in 40 years to make them more inclusive. This historic legislation ensures the rights and protections for parents who use surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization and assisted reproduction, while also updating the law to be more inclusive to LGBTQ+ parents.
“Our laws need to reflect the realities of modern families and the loving environments where children grow and flourish,” said Governor Healey. “This moment is a victory for all families in Massachusetts who deserve to be treated with dignity and to have their rights recognized and protected under the law. We are grateful to our partners in the Legislature for their leadership in advancing this important legislation, and thankful to all of the advocates who fought for years to make this a reality in Massachusetts.”
“This is commonsense, long overdue action that gives every family in Massachusetts, including many LGBTQ+ families, the legal protections they need and deserve,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “By updating these laws, we are putting outdated norms aside and paving the way for a brighter and more equitable future for families of all kinds.”
The bill updates the law to ensure that families enjoy the same rights and protections under law without regard to marital status, gender, gender identify or sexual orientation of the parents or the circumstances of the child's birth, including whether the child was born as a result of assisted reproduction or surrogacy.
“Ensuring that the Commonwealth’s laws reflect an evolving society, along with the implications of modern technology, is a key responsibility that we have as elected officials. By bolstering protections for children born through assisted reproduction, surrogacy, and to same-sex parents, we are doing just that,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy). “I want to thank Governor Healey, my colleagues in the House, and our partners in the Senate for their continued commitment to ensuring that modern-day families are protected here in Massachusetts.”
“With Governor Healey’s signature, we are taking a positive step towards modernizing our laws to match modern families across the Commonwealth,” said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “No matter what path you took to parenthood, today you can rest assured that archaic beliefs and laws no longer stand in your way as a parent. I offer my sincere gratitude to Governor Healey, Senators Cyr and Tarr for their leadership on this issue, my Senate colleagues, our partners in the House, and to the many, many diverse and loving families that raised their voices to advocate for this important change.”
The bill also 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."
“Today we acted to ensure that if you are a parent, whether a biological parent or not, the law will recognize you as a parent just as society does," said Representative Michael S. Day (D-Stoneham), House Chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary and House Chair of the conference committee. “This bill will remove one of the last vestiges of the law that treats same sex parents and parents who engaged in assisted reproduction differently from every other parent. It is a good day for all families in Massachusetts.”
“With unprecedented and alarming action in other states to strip away the rights of LGBTQ+ people and our families, Massachusetts’ outdated and heterocentric parentage laws put LGBTQ+ families at risk every day,” said Cape and Islands Senator Julian Cyr (D-Truro). “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. I am grateful to Governor Healey for signing this bill into law— today 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."
“As the House Co-lead sponsor with Rep Hannah Kane, I am so proud to have been a part of the team that got the Massachusetts Parentage Act over the goal line,” said Representative Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown), Second Assistant Majority Leader. “This bill modernizes our antiquated laws to more fully address the way families become families today. It bolsters protections for children born through assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and it protects all families in the Commonwealth, but particularly LGBTQ families. As we celebrate twenty years of marriage equality in Massachusetts, it’s important to note that we have continued through those years to act to ensure that all LGBTQ people in Massachusetts can live full lives, free from discrimination. Passage of this bill is the icing on the cake of my 18 year legislative career!”
“The Massachusetts Parentage Act is a critical piece of legislation for so many families in the Commonwealth, particularly LGBTQ+ families,” said Representative Hannah Kane (R- Shrewsbury), a lead sponsor of the bill. “Like so many people here in the Commonwealth, this legislation is personal for me. My husband Jim and I have been blessed with 3 beautiful children who are now young adults. Our parentage was easily established – the laws as they exist made it clear and easy to do so. Our beautiful, smart, sweet, tough Endicott College graduate and national collegiate rugby champion daughter Caitlin is lesbian, and if she chooses, I want her to experience the joy of being a parent someday with the same rights to establish her parentage, and to have the same legal protections, as my husband Jim and I had. I thank Governor Healey and Attorney General Campbell, the leadership in the House, Leader Peake and all the advocates for their steadfast championing of this bill.”
"No child in Massachusetts should be left in legal limbo while state agencies and the courts struggle with unclear laws to clearly establish parentage in a timely and efficient way,” said Senate Minority Leader Senator Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). “This law contains the reforms needed to prevent that from happening.”
“Passing the Massachusetts Parentage Act this session was a priority of many LGBTQ+ rights advocates in Massachusetts. This bipartisan legislation safeguards the rights of all families who use reproductive technologies to have children and gives them the legal protections they need and deserve. I am proud that our state is consistently ranked among the best places to raise a family - and legislation like this is the reason why,” said Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan (D- Stow), a member of the conference committee. “I am grateful to all who championed this bill to get it over the finish line, including Speaker Ron Mariano, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, Judiciary Chair Mike Day, Leader Sarah Peake, Rep. Hannah Kane, the LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus, and our Governor, Maura Healey.”
Statements of Support
Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defender, (GLAD) and Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Parentage Act Coalition:
“This moment has been years in the making and would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our coalition partners, countless advocates, and our champions in the legislature. I especially want to thank the many courageous families who were willing to share their personal and heart wrenching stories. Governor Healey has been a strong voice in support of the Massachusetts Parentage Act since she was Attorney General because her values, like the values shared across the Commonwealth, are centered on family, dignity and respect for all. The significance of having our first openly LGBTQ Governor sign this legislation into law is not lost on anyone, but let there be no mistake, today is a win for all children and families who call Massachusetts home.”
Kate Weldon LeBlanc, Executive Director, AllPaths Family Building and Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Parentage Act Coalition:
"Our non-profit organization, AllPaths Family Building, celebrates and supports the fact that there are many ways to grow your family, including surrogacy, adoption, and fertility treatments such as IVF. Now that the MPA has become law, we are overjoyed and grateful that the statutes of our home state reflect the wonderful diversity of families across the Commonwealth."
Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now:
“We are thrilled that Governor Maura Healey is today signing the Massachusetts Parentage Act into law to ensure all children across our state have equal access to the security of a legal parent-child relationship. Reproductive equity is not a reality in Massachusetts until every individual — and every LGBTQ+ family — is able to make decisions about whether and when to parent, and to parent with dignity. This law will protect family formation in a post-Dobbs world, ensure that LGBTQ+ parents have the protections they need to start or build their families, and support children’s development and well-being over a lifetime.”
Dr. Scott Hadland, Chief, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Mass General for Children:
“As a pediatrician and a father, I know how important this law is for families across the Commonwealth. My husband and I have two young children, and this act now grants every family long-overdue rights and protections. It also affirms a simple fact: Although no two families look the same, at the heart of every family is the loving relationship between a child and those who care for them.”
Dr. Hugh Taylor, President of the Massachusetts Medical Society:
“The physicians of the Massachusetts Medical Society applaud Governor Healey and the Legislature for taking this crucial step toward advancing fairness, equality, and security for all families. By legally recognizing the diverse ways families are formed, this legislation safeguards the rights of parents and their children. This includes ensuring that all parents can make medical decisions on behalf of their children without delay or unnecessary legal barriers. By updating the Commonwealth’s parentage laws, more children will reap the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of clearly defined legal parent-child relationships, comprehensively improving the health of the child.”
Tina Simmerman, Local 509 LBGTQIA+ Committee Chair:
“The Massachusetts Parentage Act is a crucial step forward in recognizing the diverse paths to parenthood and ensuring that every child and their parents has access to the legal security they deserve in Massachusetts. This legislation addresses the gaps in our current laws and safeguards the rights of all families. As a labor union committed to equity and fighting for social and economic justice, we are proud to have supported this bill and grateful that the legislature passed the bill, and that Governor Healey has signed it into law.”
Tanya V. Neslusan, Executive Director of MassEquality:
“The Mass Parentage Act being signed into law is a monumental victory for children and families in the Commonwealth. We are grateful to both the legislators who unanimously voted to enact this crucial legislation and the Governor for signing this into law.”
Nancy Allen-Scannell, Executive Director, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC)
“At MSPCC, we know that loving families are created in many ways and that families of all compositions provide a center of support and security for children. The MPA provides a clear legal framework to protect these vital relationships.”
Lindsay White, parent and advocate:
“This is a day for Massachusetts families to celebrate. I'm grateful that LGBTQ families like mine will no longer have to endure financial burdens and humiliation in order to have the protections of legal parentage that all children need and deserve. The MA Parentage Act ensures all families formed through assisted reproduction and other types of modern families can be secure. Massachusetts, which has long been at the forefront of treating LGBTQ families and individuals with dignity and equality, is reaffirming that commitment, thanks to our legislature passing and Governor Healey signing this law.”
###
