Legal security for donor conceived families is essential. While New York has made meaningful progress in recognizing and protecting donor conceived families, there’s still more work to do!
The Rights Act Initiating Security and Equality for Children, known as RAISE Children, aims to protect all New York families by creating and codifying clearer, more streamlined paths to parental recognition.
If enacted, RAISE Children would:
- Create a streamlined adoption process for people who are already parents under New York law (“Confirmatory Adoption“)
- Permit courts to grant multi-parent adoption petitions
- Establish clear criteria for various presumptions of parentage, and
- Codify a New York court’s ability to recognize that children sometimes have more than two parents.
RAISE Children (S.4555/A.4880) is sponsored by Senator Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember González-Rojas, and it was introduced on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
For more information and resources, visit the Family Equality RAISE Children Coalition.
RAISE Children Coalition: Why This Matters to Donor Conceived People
For many donor conceived people, the law hasn’t caught up with the reality of our lives. Our parent(s) may have to go through a second parent adoption process, which can take years to complete and cost thousands of dollars. During that time, we are left legally vulnerable. That’s where RAISE Children comes in.
Why It Matters
Legal clarity isn’t just about paperwork—it’s about being safe, seen, and protected. Legal recognition of parentage is crucial for a donor conceived child’s well-being. When one or more of our parents isn’t recognized, it affects decisions related to medical care, inheritance, custody, and more. RAISE Children addresses this inequality by making adoption and parentage judgments more accessible to all New York families.
It affirms that all families—including ours—deserve equal legal protections, no matter how we were formed. It lessens the legal burden on our parents and removes the uncertainty from our lives.
You Can Help
If you’re donor conceived, or a parent through donor conception (or both!)—your voice matters.
Your story can help legislators understand our lived experiences and their real-world stakes. You can:
- Put a human face to this issue
- Show how current laws create harm and insecurity
- Inspire others in our community to speak up
Together, we can ensure that every child’s parentage is fully and fairly recognized under New York law.
👉 Click here to share your story
Learn more at the Family Equality RAISE Children Coalition.
Top Image by Lauren Mitchell on Unsplash