On 9 April, New York became one of the last states to legalise payment to women to be ‘gestational carriers’ (a surrogate mother who gives birth to a child to whom she is not biologically related).
The legislation was smuggled into the state budget along with other non-fiscal measures. This meant it bypassed groups who would have protested it coming into law.
Those benefitting from the law will be able to make legally-enforceable surrogacy contracts. Amy Paulin, a politician from just outside New York, noted that the law gave the most protections to surrogates in the USA. A surrogate must be at least 21. The intended parents – those who will raise the child – must pay for legal counsel for their surrogate, as well as for surrogate’s health and life insurance during the pregnancy and for a year after their surrogate gives birth. These additional payments for the first year after birth will tremendously increase the costs to the prospective ‘parents’ beyond the current quarter of a million dollars it can currently cost the ‘purchaser’.
