Maternity Leave for Surrogate Parents

A recent court case in South Africa is hoping to set a new precedent for parents of surrogate children.  An anonymous father took his employer to court when not granted 4 months paid leave when his child was born through surrogacy.  The father won the case on the grounds that not extending this benefit usually reserved only to birth mothers would be harmful to the newborn child.

Today, South African courts will rule on providing surrogate parents equal rights to paternity leave, which includes 6 weeks’ leave with 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings before tax.  Hopefully, the previous ruling that surrogate parents are NOT entitled to the same benefits as birth parents will be overturned today.

Fertility Source Companies LGBT Blog Maintained by Assistant LGBT Coordinator Skye Bigari

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