Congresswoman hints at legislative action against New York's 'gestating parent' bill

Florida GOP Rep. Kat Cammack says she's considering going to the next level in her effort to get New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto a General Assembly bill that aims to define the terms “mother” and father” to “gestating" and "non-gestating parent."

Cammack has already sent a letter directly to the governor asking her to veto the bill and is now considering congressional action. 

On Tuesday, she told Just the News, No Noise TV show that the Democrat-led assembly is a "clown show" for having passed the bill June 2 on the Senate floor in a 38-23 vote.

The congresswoman also said she thinks Hochul is “scared crapless” not to sign the bill because her base has become so radical that people will come after her if she doesn’t. 

If Hochul signs the measure, it would take effect Nov. 1 and update such state laws as the Education Law, the Family Court Act, the Social Services Law and the Vehicle and Traffic Law and more.

“I think you're going to be hearing a lot more about this as she has to weigh her decision on whether she's going to sign the bill or not,” Cammack said.

She also suggested any Capitol Hill legislation would be drafted with the intention of heading off such language changes to federal law. 

"We have to absolutely be protecting terms like mother and father” when it comes to federal agencies or federal nexuses," said Cammack, while also saying  some of her Democratic colleagues have told her privately that “this is nuts."

“It just seems like they can’t get enough when it comes to redefining traditional norms and terms that have been the cornerstone of our society,” she said. “Inch by inch, they are erasing the social norms that guide our everyday lives, our society, our culture, the institutions like the family that hold everything together.”

Cammack sees the bill as an attempt by Democrats to erase motherhood and says it’s a “slap in the face” for adoptive parents who don’t experience gestational periods with their children.

The legislation was sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Luis Sepúlveda and Democratic Assembly member Amy Paulin, who said the bill's language is intended to revise terminology from ancient Latin roots to better align with the Child-Parent Security Act, which former Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed in 2020.

The Child-Parent Security Act legalized gestational surrogacy, meaning someone is allowed to carry a fetus without contributing her own egg or having any genetic connection to the child.

Cammack said Sepúlveda and Paulin's bill is "disgusting, and it is absolutely a dangerous tactic that we’re seeing coming out of the left." To her, the legislation angles the American people in the direction of authoritarian regimes from the past by distorting basic terms where people find common ground.

These regimes have “tried to attack the family unit in an effort to establish the state as the means by which people should serve,” she continued.

Katherine Pugh is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on X for more coverage.