SB1990 would amend Illinois law governing assisted reproduction, including the Illinois Parentage Act of 2015, the Gestational Surrogacy Act, and the Illinois Fertility Fraud Act. The bill requires intended parents to complete and pass a comprehensive criminal background check and screening before insemination or embryo transfer, and it makes failure to do so a waiver of the usual legal presumption of parentage for a resulting child. It also bars intended parents with specified serious criminal convictions or guilty pleas from becoming the legal parent of a child conceived through assisted reproduction.
The required screening would include fingerprint-based criminal history checks through state and federal databases, child abuse and neglect registry checks, and sex offender registry checks, with additional out-of-state registry review for recent residents of other states. In the surrogacy context, the bill adds the background-check requirement to intended-parent eligibility rules and creates a new disqualification section for those who refuse screening or have disqualifying convictions. The bill also creates a new cause of action under the Illinois Fertility Fraud Act allowing a child born through assisted reproductive treatment to sue a health care provider if the provider failed to conduct the required screening and the child later suffered sexual abuse or sexual assault by that intended parent.
Impact
SB1990 would significantly expand statutory requirements for intended parents in assisted reproduction and gestational surrogacy, adding mandatory criminal and child-protection screening as a condition of legal parentage and eligibility. It would modify parentage presumptions in the Parentage Act, add new disqualification criteria in the Gestational Surrogacy Act, and create potential civil liability for health care providers under the Fertility Fraud Act. The bill would affect fertility clinics, reproductive health providers, intended parents, surrogates, donors, and children born through assisted reproduction by tying legal parentage and provider liability to background-check compliance.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears to be precautionary and protective rather than partisan or procedural. The measure is framed around child safety, screening, and accountability in assisted reproduction, suggesting an intent to prevent placement of children with individuals who have serious violent, sexual, or child-abuse-related criminal histories. Because no committee discussion or voting history is provided, there is no documented support or opposition in the record supplied here.
Contention
The main points of contention likely concern the breadth and intrusiveness of the required background checks, the effect on access to fertility treatment and surrogacy, and the legal consequences of noncompliance. Fertility providers and intended parents may object to the administrative burden, privacy implications, and the possibility that a failure to complete screening could disrupt parentage rights. Others may question whether the list of disqualifying offenses is overinclusive or whether imposing civil liability on health care providers is appropriate when screening failures are alleged. Supporters would likely emphasize child protection and the need to prevent known abusers from obtaining legal parentage through assisted reproduction.
Surrogacy; child born via surrogacy required to be relinquished directly to an intended parent, probate courts required to confirm identity of intended parents, State Department of Human Resources authorized to adopt rules