Family Court Act § 659 · Part 3. Custody
Consideration of law allowing gender-affirming care
Text — Law content up to date as of August 21, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 659. Consideration of law allowing gender-affirming care. 1. It is the intent of the legislature that children or their parents should be able to obtain necessary medical care, including legally protected health activity, as defined by section 570.17 of the criminal procedure law.
2. A law that authorizes a child to be removed from their parent or guardian based on the parent or guardian allowing their child to engage in legally protected health activity, as defined by section 570.17 of the criminal procedure law, or based on such parent or guardian themself engaging in legally protected health activity, is against the public policy of this state and shall not be enforced or applied in a case pending in a court in this state.
3. No court in this state shall admit or consider a finding of abuse, neglect or maltreatment based on the parent or guardian allowing their child to engage in legally protected health activity, as defined by section 570.17 of the criminal procedure law, or based on such parent or guardian themself engaging in legally protected health activity, as evidence in any proceeding with respect to that parent or guardian and any of their children, unless such conduct would constitute abuse, neglect or maltreatment under the laws of this state.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of August 21, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/FCT659
- Text hash
- sha256 9a526dc317d0445fc54d3c4ac461129f1362d9ea7bd0507c37300d002fe336ce
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.