The High Court of Justice in Israel has ruled that both women in a lesbian couple can be listed as birth mothers on their child’s birth certificate. The reasoning was that, in practice, both women are equal partners in raising and caring for their child, regardless of who physically gave birth to the baby. The ruling is specifically for lesbian couples who conceive through an anonymous sperm donor and will take effect right away. It was a response to nine couples who petitioned for the change, citing that the listing of both partners in a same-sex couple is common practice in many other areas ..read more

The National Health Service (NHS) in England is now offering paid leave to any of its staff members who experience a pregnancy loss in the first 24 weeks of their pregnancy. A birth parent who loses a pregnancy can take as many as 10 days of leave, and the partner of someone who has experienced pregnancy loss can take five days. Any staff member who has a miscarriage after 24 weeks (six months) will be able to take paid maternity leave. Up until recently, this type of loss was something most people had to go through alone, or with only the support of their partner or family. Having an employer ..read more

In the past, parents in England had no formal way to acknowledge the loss of a baby before 24 weeks. Babies lost after that time were eligible for a death certificate, but earlier pregnancy losses were mostly ignored, at least from an official standpoint. Now, though, the rules have been changed. Parents who have lost a child before 24 weeks from September 2018 onward can now get a government certificate that recognizes their grief and the loss they faced. The new baby loss certificate is designed to help parents process their loss and the trauma that comes with it, by formally acknowledging t ..read more

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are unborn children. That creates some potentially messy legal issues surrounding whether embryos that aren’t used for IVF procedures can be destroyed. Because of that, fertility clinics throughout the state stopped offering these treatments, putting them on hold until the legality around how embryos are handled is decided. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth and many of her colleagues are using this as a way to push back against the changes Republicans are trying to make to women’s rights, especially when it comes to reproduction. She has ..read more

A past law in the Ukraine required that any frozen sperm from a soldier who was killed in action had to be discarded, but a new law is changing that. Now, the Ukrainian parliament has approved a measure which alllows sperm to be used from soldiers who die in action. One of the considerations in changing this measure is the rising death toll among young men in the ongoing war with Russia. Additionally, the fertility rate is low and there are millions of emigrants, as well. This makes demographics a big consideration and one of the ways to increase the population is to allow frozen sperm to be u ..read more

Greece has legalized same-sex civil marriage, making it the first Orthodox country to do so. There was significant opposition to the legalization from the Greek Church, which is socially conservative. However, the measure still passed and same-sex couples will be allowed to enter into civil marriages. There were 176 lawmakers out of the 300 members of parliament who voted in favor of the change, and they came from both parties. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his center-right government were the ones who drafted the bill, and 76 members of parliament rejected it. There were also two mem ..read more

It’s widely known that a woman’s age matters for fertility, but how much a man’s age affects procreation hasn’t really been discussed. Most people assume that men can have children much later in life, which is often technically true. Men produce sperm far longer than women produce eggs, which is why some men in their 60s and 70s become biological fathers. However, age is still a factor in sperm quality, and older fathers could be adding increased health risks to their offspring. The older a man is when he conceives children, the higher the chances of that child having a neurodevelopmental issu ..read more

The Pope has recently made statements indicating that surrogacy was “inhuman” and “despicable.” He spoke of women, typically those who were poor, being exploited and used as surrogates with few rights and little compensation. Additionally, he talked of how children created in this way could become human trafficking objects. Since he came out with these comments, several other Christian leaders have made similar statements about surrogacy in general. However, those who see the value in surrogacy point out that there are many laws to protect surrogates, especially in the United States, and more ..read more

Surrogates, also known as gestational carriers, carry children for others and can be compensated for their time as well as the expenses that go along with pregnancy and childbirth. However, there’s no set amount they are required to be paid and that leaves some surrogates making more than others. There are even some who offer to carry a child for free, usually for a close friend or family member who can’t have children of their own. Nationwide, first-time surrogates make an average base pay of $45,000 to $55,000. Fees rise to between $60,000 and $70,000 for second-time surrogates, and the fami ..read more

Pope Francis is calling surrogacy “deplorable” and stating that it should be banned on a worldwide level. In his eyes the practice commercializes pregnancy and takes advantage of surrogates. However, there are many surrogacy advocates who are pushing back against the comments the pope has made. They’re arguing for the value of surrogacy in the lives of individuals and couples who need help to start or grow their families. A recent speech made by the pope included commentary that called on the global community to make surrogacy illegal. That’s already the case in a number of countries, which in ..read more