PA High Court Affirms Parental Status

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a major ruling protecting a lesbian mother’s parental status & affirming the recognition of legal parentage for children born through assisted reproduction. “A couples’ decision to have a baby together is often profoundly intimate & may not be so easily reduced to a transaction," stated the high court in this landmark decision establishing a legal standard. In the case Glover v. Junior the state Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that Junior had established legal parentage of the couple’s child & that their subsequent separation & divorce did not change the fact that Junior is her child’s parent. Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders stated, “Having a secure legal parent-child relationship is critical to a child’s wellbeing. 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.” Shannon Minter, NCLR’s Legal Director concluded, “Children born through assisted reproduction deserve the same security and stability as other children. This decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will ensure that families created through assisted reproduction have clear protections & that lower courts have clear guidance about how to apply the law to these families.” GLAD Law & NCLR along with the ACLU, ACLU of Pennsylvania, Family Equality, Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia Family Pride & COLAGE filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

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