Bravo host Andy Cohen joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in pushing state legislators to pass a bill legalizing surrogacy in New York.
In a joint op-ed published in BuzzFeed on Monday they said the statewide ban amounted to discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Cohen also joined Cuomo and advocates in Albany, N.Y., on Tuesday to lobby for the Child-Parent Security Act, seven days before the end of the legislative session.
The bill would repeal sections of existing laws relating to the legitimacy of children born by artificial insemination and surrogacy.{mosads}
New York is one of three states where gestational surrogacy is illegal.
“It’s nonsensical that an act of pure selflessness is illegal in New York in 2019. If a gay couple or a couple struggling with fertility wants to start a family with the help of a gestational surrogate, they must travel out of state and deal with another state’s laws and oftentimes lesser health care systems,” the op-ed reads.
“This comes at a huge cost to those pursuing surrogacy — legally, financially, and otherwise — and is a barrier to family building that does not represent our values,” it continues.
But the bill faces opposition from within the progressive umbrella. Feminist Gloria Steinem said the “profit-driven reproductive surrogacy industry” endangers women, in a letter shared by New York reporter Zack Fink.
“Under this bill, women in economic need become commercialized vessels for rent, and the fetuses they carry become the property of others,” Steinem wrote.
In their joint op-ed, Cuomo and Cohen noted New York passed the Reproductive Health Act earlier this year, which codified Roe v. Wade into state law and protected women’s access to abortion.
“The surrogacy bill ensures that a gestational surrogate — the woman who wants to bring a child into this world for others — has the strongest protections in the country,” the op-ed states.