The push to legalize surrogacy in New York was successful this year (photo: governor's office)

The New York Legislature passed its own economic stimulus package when it legalized paid gestational surrogacy in the new state budget. Beginning February 2021, legal professionals will have a new income source by helping couples participate in paid gestational surrogacy. In addition, New Yorkers who qualify as surrogates will be able to receive compensation for carrying a child; in California, qualified surrogates with a successful history of taking a child to term can earn

There are competing proposals to legalize surrogacy in NY (photo: Governor's Office)

Imagine having a baby but then being told you have to wait eight days before securing custody of your child. It’s bizarre and cruel, yet it’s an idea that’s actually being floated in Albany right now as a “compromise” to finally end New York State’s outdated ban on gestational surrogacy.

As a three-time cancer survivor in my thirties who went through three rounds of fertility preservation before treatment, this is heartbreaking. I choose to live in New York for many

State Senator Liz Krueger, the author (photo: NY Senate)

Advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART), including intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg and sperm donation, and surrogacy, have created remarkable new family-building options in the last several decades. As someone who is unable to have my own biological children, I support New Yorkers being able to use ART, including surrogacy, to build the families they want.

Yet these relatively new technologies bring with them complex

Gov. Cuomo (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

Governor Andrew Cuomo celebrated the achievements of 2019 on Friday, calling the legislative session an “overwhelming success” at a wrap-up news conference in the Capitol. During the January to June session, Cuomo and the state Legislature, with its two Democratic majorities for the first time in a decade, moved legislation dealing with a long list of issues, from combating climate change to expanding voting and reproductive rights, new gun regulations to a cap on annual property tax

Sen. Hoylman, middle, with his husband & daughter, & Gov. Cuomo, right  (photo: governor's office)

When Marisa Horowitz-Jaffe and her husband, Doug Jaffe, wanted to have a baby, they faced numerous obstacles before the birth of their twins via a surrogate in a Dallas hospital eight years ago.

Their twins were born in a Texas hospital because the couple was forced to travel out of state in order to use a surrogate. New York is one of only two states in the country to criminalize surrogacy, a fact Horowitz-Jaffe

Sital Kalantry, the author (photo: Cornell Law School)

New York State is on the brink of replacing an outdated and prohibitive law that criminalizes the practice of compensated surrogacy, one of only two states that does so. Legislation to reverse the law has been introduced in both houses of the state Legislature, and Governor Cuomo has demonstrated support for it by including it in his Executive Budget.

As a law professor who focuses on gender equity, ...