Under the new law, ‘mother’ would be replaced with ‘gestating parent,’ and ‘father’ would become ‘non-gestating parent.’<\/p>\n
The New York state Legislature passed a bill that replaces the words \u201cmother\u201d and \u201cfather\u201d in some state laws with gender-neutral language, a move that New York\u2019s bishops say will further \u201cmuddy what is true and good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill, passed by the state Assembly in March and by the state Senate on June 2, now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul to be signed into law.<\/p>\n
Under the new law, \u201cmother\u201d would be replaced with \u201cgestating parent,\u201d and \u201cfather\u201d would be \u201cnon-gestating parent.\u201d The words \u201cpaternity\u201d and \u201cfiliation\u201d would be replaced with \u201cparentage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York State Catholic Conference issued a memorandum<\/a> on June 10 noting the bishops\u2019 opposition to the new law, calling it \u201cpolitically charged\u201d and \u201cunnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is that mothers are mothers, and fathers are fathers,\u201d the bishops wrote. \u201cWords matter, and serious changes to our governing language serve only to wash away the importance of these roles in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe yearslong push in our state for abortion on demand and up until birth, the endless millions of dollars funneled to Planned Parenthood, and the legalization of commercial surrogacy have reduced women to vessels and babies to disposable commodities,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Legislature\u2019s final twist of the knife is now apparently removing the term \u2018mother\u2019 altogether,\u201d they wrote. \u201cWe must reverse course and recognize the importance of both mothers and fathers and pursue changes that truly support women and families.\u201d<\/p>\n