There are so many changes to laws happening or being talked about that it can be hard to keep track of them all. One you may want to keep an eye on if you are thinking about building a family by surrogacy is the proposal to end birthright citizenship.
While this has not yet happened at the time of this writing and will likely face many legal challenges if it does, the mere thought that it could occur is causing many parents and potential parents to worry.
The current law
Currently, a child born within the border of the United States will automatically become a U.S. citizen. That is their Constitutional right, irrespective of the nationality, gender, sexual orientation or marital status of their parents and irrespective of the type of surrogacy involved. President Trump has talked about changing that to a system where a child’s nationality may depend on the nationality of their parents.
For a married heterosexual couple giving birth by traditional means, that parental nationality is easy to define. It may not be so simple for other cases, however.
Who is the parent?
Currently, individual states decide how they determine who is the parent of a child although different courts and counties within a state may differ on some points. For example, some courts will give the intended parents in a surrogacy a pre-birth parentage order so that their names will go straight onto the birth certificate once the child is born. Others won’t or may be less likely to do so for certain categories of parents.
As any potential change to birthright citizenship would take place at the federal level, even the states and courts that are most welcoming of non-traditional family units might struggle to give all children born here the U.S. citizenship they would currently get.
Those considering surrogacy may want legal guidance to enable them to make the best decisions for themselves and their future child.