Bill > S2912

This bill makes several key changes to laws related to parentage and the rights of children born to unmarried parents or through assisted reproduction. Some of the major provisions include: - Updating terminology from "paternity" to "parentage" throughout the law to be more inclusive of various family structures. - Establishing new definitions and legal frameworks for concepts like "acknowledged parent", "adjudicated parent", "assisted reproduction", "donor", and "surrogacy agreement". - Affirming that children have the same rights and protections regardless of the marital status, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation of their parents. - Allowing for the legal recognition of more than two parents in certain circumstances if it is in the best interest of the child. - Providing detailed procedures and requirements for surrogacy agreements, including provisions around terminating agreements, establishing parentage, and addressing issues that may arise due to errors or the death of an intended parent. - Updating laws around voluntary acknowledgements of parentage, presumptions of parentage, and the process for adjudicating parentage disputes. - Requiring the court to update existing forms and create new ones to enable individuals to file these cases pro se. - Setting an effective date of January 1, 2025 for the new law.

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/S2912