{"id":141561,"date":"2025-04-08T21:43:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T01:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=141561"},"modified":"2025-04-08T21:44:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T01:44:31","slug":"to-protect-all-families-we-must-update-pennsylvanias-parentage-laws-op-ed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=141561","title":{"rendered":"To Protect All Families, We Must Update Pennsylvania\u2019s Parentage Laws | Op-Ed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Op-Ed by: Rep. Jeanne McNeill, D-Lehigh\u00a0www.repmcneill.com<\/a> ,\u00a0<\/strong>Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland\u00a0www.repdelozier.com<\/a> , <\/strong>Rep. Dan Miller, D-Allegheny\u00a0www.repdanmiller.com<\/a> ,\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Rep. Ben Sanchez, D-Montgomery\u00a0<\/span>www.repbensanchez.com<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the lead-up to having a child, many families make important preparations: taking parenting classes and reading parenting books, choosing medical professionals and lining up a pediatrician, even painting the nursery and getting everything ready for the child\u2019s arrival. But for some families in Pennsylvania, there is a lot of additional legwork that continues well after the child\u2019s birth. Some families are forced to pursue what are known as \u201cconfirmatory adoptions\u201d for their children, just to secure parental rights; these can involve court hearings, burdensome legal documentation, background checks, and other clearances if they\u2019ve lived in other states. The process can cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete.<\/p>\n

Some families are forced to endure these additional steps because of Pennsylvania\u2019s outdated parentage laws. It\u2019s well past time that we update these laws to better reflect the range of parenting relationships that Pennsylvanians hold \u2013 and to protect more families, getting everyone on the same footing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019ve introduced the Uniform Parentage Act again this year. The bill, H.B. 350, passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives last year with strong bipartisan support but, unfortunately, the session ended before the Senate had a chance to consider it. Now, in 2025, we need to get this legislation across the finish line so that our state\u2019s courts have a clear legal framework protecting the rights of all families. Families in Pennsylvania, including those formed in part through assisted reproduction like IVF and surrogacy, deserve clear guidelines on how to legally establish a parent-child relationship.<\/p>\n

In addition to providing an option for a voluntary acknowledgement of parentage, which can be done prior to birth in a straightforward process at no cost to the parents, the UPA would introduce new, strong protections for people involved in surrogacy agreements. It\u2019s a commonsense policy that reflects best practices and takes into account the technological developments that have allowed so many Pennsylvania families to build loving families that make our state great.<\/p>\n

Without the UPA, children and families will continue to suffer in the Keystone State because they\u2019ll continue to fall through the cracks in our legal framework. There are many protections and responsibilities that flow from legal parentage \u2013 medical decision making, access to benefits, health insurance, child support, and more. Modernized parentage laws also ensure that if something happens to a parent \u2013 including death, separation, or divorce \u2013 the relationship between the parents and their children endure. For children, a legal parent-child relationship is central to stability, security and overall well-being \u2013 and they deserve to have that clarity on the day they are born, not months or years later.<\/p>\n

In this Commonwealth, families come in all shapes and sizes. Our laws need to provide security and protection for all of them.\u00a0We have the solution for this problem \u2013 the Uniform Parentage Act \u2013 and now, it\u2019s up to all of us to get to work and get it passed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nBob Caton
\nDirector of Communications
\nOffice of the PA House Majority Leader<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Op-Ed by: Rep. Jeanne McNeill, D-Lehigh\u00a0www.repmcneill.com ,\u00a0Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland\u00a0www.repdelozier.com , Rep. Dan Miller, D-Allegheny\u00a0www.repdanmiller.com ,\u00a0Rep. Ben Sanchez, D-Montgomery\u00a0www.repbensanchez.com In the lead-up to having a child, many families make important … Continue reading To Protect All Families, We Must Update Pennsylvania\u2019s Parentage Laws | Op-Ed<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/baby.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/141562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}