Massachusetts Senate Unanimously Passes Controversial Parentage Equality Bill

The Massachusetts Senate has unanimously passed legislation to modernize the state’s parentage laws, providing additional rights to same-sex couples and replacing gendered language with gender-neutral terms.

H.4750, titled "An Act to Ensure Legal Parentage Equality," also creates legal pathways to parentage for individuals and couples using assisted reproduction and surrogacy. The bill affords non-biological parents and those acting in a meaningful parental role the ability to pursue full legal rights.

Under the legislation, several terms and phrases will be officially updated in state law:

• “Paternity” will change to “parentage”


• “Child born out of wedlock” will change to “nonmarital child”


• “His” will change to “their”


• “Man and woman” will change to “persons”


• “Mother” will change to “person who gave birth”


• “Father” will change to “other parent”

LGBTQ rights organizations hailed the passage of the bill as a major victory and a historic piece of legislation that will protect LGBTQ families and children born through surrogacy.

“Today, Massachusetts took a major step forward in ensuring that all families are treated equally under our laws,” said Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. “We are grateful to the many people, families, and advocates who have fought for years to get to this point.”

The bill passed the state house last month and will now head to the desk of Gov. Maura Healey, who has expressed support for the legislation.

“With this vote the Massachusetts Senate demonstrated that fairness under the law is for everyone,” Crozier added. “We look forward to seeing the Massachusetts Parentage Act enacted and signed into law soon.”

However, the legislation has also been sharply criticized by family advocacy organizations.

According to a legislative brief from the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), H.4750 (which was amended from H.4672) will deprive children of their right to know their biological parents, turn children into commodities that can be bought and sold, and hurt mothers and fathers.

“When a child is conceived through surrogacy or sperm or egg donorship, they are almost always separated from one or more of the biological parents who helped to create them,” the group said.

“A growing body of social science and psychological research suggests that when children grow up apart from their biological parents, they suffer mentally and emotionally, are more likely to be abused, and have worse life outcomes,” MFI added. “While adoption helps to mend the already broken situation of being separated from one’s biological parents, surrogacy and sperm and egg donorship intentionally create that brokenness. The child bears the consequences.”

MFI also said that surrogacy “invites a whole host of moral and legal problems that negatively affect surrogate mothers” and the children they bear. As an example, the group cited “wealthy buyers have been known to take advantage of impoverished mothers who may feel pressured to rent their wombs out to make ends meet.”