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After sometimes emotionally-charged testimony, the Assembly Women and Children Committee voted S-482 (Vitale)/A-1704 (Huttle), the New Jersey Gestational Carrier Agreement Act, out of committee. The bill was also voted out of the Assembly last week. New Jersey State Bar Association’s Deb Guston, former chair of the LGBT Section, testified in support of the bill.

The bill authorizes gestational carrier agreements and sets best practices for attorneys and licensed professionals in creating gestational carrier agreements. While surrogacy occurs in New Jersey, no law recognizes these agreements. The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, testified that the bill is long overdue to protect the intended parents, the gestational carrier, and the child.

“Ignoring the legal issues that accompany technological advancements does not remove the challenges, it merely adds an additional burden on loving couples or individuals who are already struggling to have a child,” said Huttle. “Without this legislation, intended parents and gestational surrogates will continue having children through these agreements but without legal protections, or they will be forced to move to other states that afford them with more security.”

Guston, also a fellow of the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys, testified in support of the bill both in the Senate two weeks ago and last week. She outlined the framework for the intent of the bill — to establish best practices and address gaps in current practice under the New Jersey Court Rules regarding parentage.

“This allows all parties to be educated and counseled in their rights and obligations before the contract becomes binding” said Guston. “Without this bill, gestational surrogacy will remain unregulated, unenforceable, and the rights of all adults and children born of these arrangements remain unprotected.”

The bill has a storied history, having been vetoed by Governor Chris Christie twice since its introduction in 2012. Harold Cassidy, an attorney who represented Mary Beth Whitehead of the famed Baby M case, testified in opposition to the bill. Whitehead was the surrogate mother who initially agreed to bear a child for another couple using her own egg. She later changed her mind, which led to a heated legal battle that granted Whitehead parental rights, although the couple had parental rights.

Cassidy said the bill would exploit women who carry babies because of the compensation they receive. He also commented that the bill would weaken women’s rights.

Huttle has pointed out that this bill does not involve biological parents, rather cases that utilize a donor egg and donor sperm.

“I was taken aback by your testimony,” committee chair Gabriela Mosquera said in response to Cassidy’s testimony. “This is a contract between adults. These are vetted individuals. I don’t believe these gestational carriers are being exploited and as a woman I take offense to think that gestational carriers are being duped somehow.”

Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro made an emotional statement in support of the bill, as did Mosquera, who tearfully read in the statement of an intended parent in support of the bill, recounting her own experiences of surrogacy.

This is a status report provided by the New Jersey State Bar Association on recently passed and pending legislation, regulations, gubernatorial nominations and/or appointments of interest to lawyers, as well as the involvement of the NJSBA as amicus in appellate court matters. To learn more, visit njsba.com.