Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, speaks to reporters outside the Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol in Albany on Wednesday. Photo: Hans Pennink/AP

New York will continue its ban on allowing women to be paid to act as gestational surrogates for individuals who can not physically have a child on their own, such as infertile or same-sex couples.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, confirmed in a statement Thursday morning that his chamber would not take up legislation to legalize surrogacy before the end of this year's legislative session.

He said the bill ultimately didn't have the support to pass after a number of concerns were aired by members of the Democratic conference, who hold a majority in the chamber. Some members were worried the bill was a slippery slope toward commercializing women's bodies.

“We must ensure that the health and welfare of women who enter into these arrangements are protected, and that reproductive surrogacy does not become commercialized,” Heastie said. “This requires careful thought. While our work for this session is nearly complete, I look forward to continuing this conversation in the coming months with our members and interested parties to develop a solution that works for everyone.”

Heastie said it wasn't any single member of the chamber that stopped the bill from coming to the floor; a “large majority of women” raised concerns about the measure, he said. Other Democrats, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have singled out a handful of Democrats in the Assembly in recent days who are opposed to the measure.

A major reservation held by opponents of the bill dealt with protections for women who enter into surrogacy agreements. But Cuomo, who's pushed hard in recent weeks for the bill to become law, has said the proposal would include several safeguards to address those concerns.

Those who agree to act as a surrogate would be required to have an attorney to execute the agreement, for example. That attorney would be chosen by the surrogate, but paid for by the intended parent or parents. Family court judges would have also been responsible for overseeing proceedings during which the so-called parentage of a child conceived through surrogacy is determined.

A surrogacy agreement also wouldn't preclude women from making their own decisions about their health care, according to the bill. They would still have the right to terminate a pregnancy, for example.

Cuomo criticized lawmakers in the Assembly for failing to pass the bill Thursday, comparing the issue to New York's recently enacted measure that enshrined the same protections from Roe v. Wade into state law.

“I say, how about a woman's right to choose, which we just argued for Roe v. Wade?” Cuomo said. “But in this state we say the woman must have an attorney, the woman must have a health counselor, the transaction will be supervised under the Department of Health, the woman can't be in dire economic conditions, but you still believe the woman is not competent to make that decision.”

State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, sponsors the bill in the Senate, which already approved the bill earlier this month. Hoylman, the only openly gay member of the Senate, has two children born from surrogates in other states. He was disappointed the bill didn't come to the floor, but said he would try again next year.

“My children are the most important thing in the world to me,” Hoylman said. “Everyone in New York, including LGBTQ and people struggling with infertility, should have the same opportunity to build a family as my husband and me and the residents of the 47 other states that allow compensated surrogacy agreements.”

Lawmakers are expected to leave Albany either later Thursday or early Friday and aren't scheduled to return until next January.

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