State advisory panel seeks to end ban on women serving as paid childbirth surrogates

ALBANY — An influential state advisory panel has recommended that New York do away with its decades-old ban on women serving as paid childbirth surrogates, the Daily News has learned.

The recommendation issued quietly last month by the Health Department’s Task Force on Life and the Laws is being hailed as a watershed development by advocates for gay couples and others struggling with infertility who have been pushing for years to change the law.

“I think it is a major step forward for our efforts to legalize commercial surrogacy agreements,” said State Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), who along with his husband David Sigal, has two children born to out-of-state surrogates.

In its report, the task force cited both the cultural changes and advances in reproductive medical science — especially in vitro fertilization — since the state first prohibited surrogacy arrangements in 1992. It also noted the 2011 law that legalized same sex marriage in New York

Rep. Franks proposed sex to female staffers he had offered money

“Equity must be a driving principle if all families are to enjoy the opportunity to welcome children into their family,” the report stated. “Gestational surrogacy affords lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families an important opportunity to have children.”

Seven of the task force’s 22 members, however, disagreed with the recommendation and issued a “minority report” declaring that “commercial surrogacy is tantamount to the purchase and sale of babies.”

The task force was created by former Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1987 amid the uproar caused by the notorious Baby M custody case in New Jersey. The panel’s initial recommendation led to the 1992 law banning paid surrogacy arrangements.

New York is currently one of only six states that ban or place restrictions on gestational surrogacy agreements, the task force’s latest report notes.

Gay rights advocates fight for surrogates

Hoylman believes the task force’s new report will give momentum to legislation he's sponsored with Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) that would allow surrogacy arrangements that involve surrogates with no genetic relationship to the child they carry. The measure was first introduced in 2012 but has repeatedly stalled in both houses.

“It breathes new life into it,” Paulin said.

Assembly Judiciary Committee Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) expressed support for the bill and said he will likely hold a hearing or a roundtable discussion on it in the coming weeks.

“I am hoping we can address it this session,” Dinowitz said.

The measure, however, still faces an uncertain fate, especially in the GOP-controlled state Senate. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) did not respond to a request for comment.

Gov. Cuomo has also not taken a position on the issue.

"We thank the task force for their work and are looking closely at their recommendations," Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.

The Catholic Conference, meanwhile, is urging lawmakers to defeat the measure.

“I think it's ironic that at a time when our culture is advancing women's rights and gender equality, here we have a government task force that's basically recommending exploitation of women, essentially using them as incubators and undermining their dignity,” said Kathleen M. Gallagher, director of pro-life activities for the New York State Catholic Conference.