PA Supreme Court Affirms Lesbian Mom's Parental Status, Providing a Legal Standard to Secure Families Formed Through Assisted Reproduction

"A couples' decision to have a baby together is often profoundly intimate and may not be so easily reduced to a transaction," state high court says in landmark decision establishing a legal standard that will allow secure parental relationships for children born through assisted reproduction

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a major ruling protecting a lesbian mother's parental status and affirming the recognition of legal parentage for children born through assisted reproduction.

The case, Glover v. Junior, concerned a married, non-genetic, non-gestational mother, Nicole Junior, who planned with her now former spouse to conceive and raise a child through assisted reproduction. In its March 20 opinion, the state Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that Junior had established legal parentage of the couple's child and that their subsequent separation and divorce did not change the fact that Junior is her child's parent.

The court cited significant evidence in the record that the couple had planned to become parents together, including jointly signed agreements related to the assisted reproduction and Junior's full participation in the planning and process of family building. Recognizing the importance of a legal standard that provides an avenue to secure families formed through assisted reproduction, the Court said, "a couples' decision to have a baby together is often profoundly intimate and may not be so easily reduced to a transaction."

"Having a secure legal parent-child relationship is critical to a child's wellbeing," said Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. "Many hopeful parents across Pennsylvania — including many LGBTQ+ people — are building or seeking to build loving, stable families through assisted reproduction. With this decision the Court has not only, importantly, affirmed that Nicole Junior is a parent to her child, it rightfully advances application of Pennsylvania common law so that a child born through assisted reproduction isn't stripped of a loving parent."

"Children born through assisted reproduction deserve the same security and stability as other children," said Shannon Minter, NCLR's Legal Director. "This decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will ensure that families created through assisted reproduction have clear protections and that lower courts have clear guidance about how to apply the law to these families."

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Pennsylvania, Family Equality, Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia Family Pride, and COLAGE filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.