The New York State Assembly on a motion by Assemblymember Pollan advanced and then passed a chapter amendment to the Child Parent Security Act (senate bill 20507), adopting technical corrections that sponsors said fix implementation problems in the original budget language.

Supporters said the amendments restore or clarify procedural details and timelines left unclear during the law's initial enactment. "The bill was put into the budget, and there were things that when it was implemented needed to be fixed," Assemblymember Pollan, sponsor of the chapter amendment, told colleagues while explaining the changes.

The chapter amendment makes several specific changes discussed on the floor: it corrects a retroactivity clause to tie the law back to 2021 (the year the Child Parent Security Act first took effect), requires courts to issue amended judgments that include a child's name and birth date once the court is notified of a birth, and preserves the original statute's list of health-care responsibilities for intended parents. Those responsibilities, as stated on the floor, include preconception care, prenatal care, major medical treatments, hospitalization and behavioral-health care during the surrogate's pregnancy and for 12 months after the child's birth. Sponsors said some insurance-related provisions were removed from this chapter amendment and will be addressed in a subsequent bill.

Sponsor Pollan said the Office of Court Administration and attorneys for intended parents worked to identify technical fixes. She said several clarifications are intended to help hospitals and courts know who the legal parent is and to speed timely notification to the court because due dates vary. Pollan said the chapter amendment leaves for later session additional insurance changes that lawmakers did not have sufficient time to finalize.

Opponents and some members acknowledged the subject's controversy. One assemblymember who spoke in debate described broader objections to paid surrogacy, saying critics contend it "commodifies a woman's body and that paid surrogacy potentially treats reproduction as a commodity that could possibly lead to the exploitation of lower class or destitute women." Other members said the chapter amendment does not expand the scope of services beyond what the original law specified.

The Assembly recorded the final vote on the chapter amendment as Ayes 128, Noes 13. The sponsor said the change to the retroactivity clause corrected a drafting error that had left the earlier amendment referring to 2022 rather than 2021.

The chapter amendment also delays one reporting requirement tied to hospital registrars: a portion of the technical changes that would have required certain hospital-record reporting was moved to take effect three years after the act becomes law, per the sponsor and administration request. Sponsors said the delay was requested by the Department of Health to allow implementation time.

Because some insurance provisions were excluded from this chapter amendment, sponsors said additional corrective legislation addressing insurance provisions will come later in the session.