MassLive | With Gov. Healey’s signature, Mass.’ definition of parenthood gets a historic update

By John L. Micek | Originally Published by MassLive.com

With fights over in vitro fertilization and LGBTQ+ rights front and center this campaign season, Gov. Maura Healey has signed a law expanding the definition of parenthood, saying it protects the rights of more Massachusetts families.

The legislation, formally known as “The Parentage Act ensures legal rights and protections for families who use surrogacy, in-vitro and assisted reproduction, Healey’s office said in a statement.

The first such update in 40 years, the bill also modernizes state law to be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ families in the commonwealth, officials said.

“Our laws need to reflect the realities of modern families and the loving environments where children grow and flourish,” Healey said in a statement.

“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,” the Arlington Democrat continued. “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.”

The bill, which has made the legislative rounds since at least 2022, cleared the state House in June. It won approval in the state Senate during the final hours of last month’s formal voting sessions.

The bill also modernizes the language in state law, dropping such words and phrases as “paternity” for “parentage” and “child born out of wedlock” for “nonmarital child,” according to a summary provided by Healey’s office.

Advocates for the update have said families who have children through alternative means needed that “core legal relationship,” because children can be separated from their parents when they lack that tie.

The bill “[removes] 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,” Rep. Michael S. Day, D-31st Middlesex, the lead House negotiator on the legislation, said.

Rep. Sarah Peake, D-4th Barnstable, one of the bill’s lead sponsors in the lower chamber, said the legislation “protects all families in the commonwealth, but particularly LGBTQ families.”

That’s particularly poignant, she added, as the state marks 20 years of marriage equality.

Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Cape and Islands, said the bill is a personal one for him, since “LGBTQ+ families like mine face excessive and expensive hoops just to ensure our children have the security of legal parentage.”

And with “unprecedented and alarming action in other states to strip away the rights of LGBTQ+ people,” the bill is particularly crucial, Cyr said.

A tally by the American Civil Liberties Union showed 527 anti-LGBTQ+ bills before state lawmakers nationwide. Two such bills in Massachusetts dealing with “curriculum censorship have failed to advance, according to the ACLU’s rundown.

Last month, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance of Ohio made national headlines for remarks he made in 2022 attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as a “childless cat lady,” and questioning why people without children should hold positions of power.

“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,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce E. Tarr, R-1st Essex/Middlesex, said. “This law contains the reforms needed to prevent that from happening.”

The bill also 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,” Rebecca Hart Holder, the president of Reproductive Equity Now, said.