Modern same-sex laws in the U.S. are more favorable for allowing LGBTQ couples to raise children than in the past. Gay couples in Illinois have a wide range of options available to them whether they want to have biological children or raise other non-biological kids.
Adoption and foster care
Due to same-sex marriage being legal in the U.S., same-sex couples are allowed to adopt or take in foster children. In every state, a married person is permitted to adopt the child of his or her spouse. LGBTQ law is national and allows same-sex adoption all over the U.S.
Third-party reproduction
Third-party reproduction is a fertility procedure that requires a third person who either donates an egg or sperm or acts as a gestational carrier. The donor can be a friend, associate, or random person. These procedures include sperm donor insemination, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy.
For lesbian couples, sperm donor insemination is the procedure of obtaining sperm from a donor and inseminating it into the womb. For male gay couples, in vitro fertilization is the process of taking sperm from one partner and combining it with an egg.
Surrogacy is the acting of taking a fertilized egg and implanting it into another woman’s or gestational carrier’s body. One member of a same-sex couple donates an egg or sperm to create a fertilized embryo outside of the body, which gets implanted into the carrier’s womb.
How the law protects all couples
The number of gay adoptions and fertility procedures has dramatically increased in the past decade. More couples, both gay and straight, are seeing the vast range of options for conceiving and raising children thanks to major advancements in medical technology. Federal laws protect their rights to become parents in the ways they choose.
