Building a family is not always easy, particularly for LGBTQ people, but finding inclusive, informed support can be a challenge in itself. Lauren Hart Clancy, executive director of AllPaths Family Building, spoke with me about how the non-profit is helping people of all identities start and grow their families.
“We don’t always get to choose what our path to parenthood is, and every journey is valid and deserves support,” Clancy said. A public health professional, Clancy had turned to AllPaths during her own journey to having two children via in vitro fertilization (IVF) with her husband. She volunteered as an AllPaths support group leader and fundraiser while running her own maternal and child health coaching and consulting practice, then was tapped to lead AllPaths this past June.
The hallmark of the 52-year-old organization (formerly Resolve New England) is its range of free, Zoom-based, peer support groups, open to people anywhere. “We want to create a caring community for everyone struggling to build their families,” she said. There is a group for LGBTQ people trying to conceive, held in partnership with Family Equality and the LGBTQ+ Perinatal Wellness Center, as well as groups for people of any identity on different paths to parenthood (including donor conception, surrogacy, and adoption); and for those experiencing infertility, pregnancy loss, cancer and fertility, parenting after family-building challenges, trying for a second child, and more.
“Every peer leader is someone with lived experience in the topic that they are leading,” she added. Many were group attendees themselves, and all must go through an interview and a training program before leading a group.
The specificity of the groups, Clancy said, “can make the biggest difference in people finding their people, so they don’t feel alone on their journey.” Any person is welcome to attend any group where they feel a fit and to change groups as desired, she noted.
People can explore the current groups via AllPaths’ website, which also includes a searchable resource library of articles, YouTube videos, and a podcast of family-building stories.
In addition, AllPaths offers a free insurance assistance program, where an insurance expert will consult with members of the AllPaths community “if for any reason you need help getting coverage for whatever your road to parenthood is,” Clancy said. While open to anyone, it may be of particular interest to LGBTQ people, who can often face coverage obstacles. “Our consultant will coach you through the process of appealing and what exactly to say,” she explained.
Neither insurance coverage nor even the right to access fertility treatments are guaranteed across the U.S., however, which is why AllPaths is also working for legislative change. Particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned the right to abortion, “there’s a lot of ‘fetal personhood’ activity on the federal level,” Clancy said. “Fetal personhood” is the idea that fetuses, and even embryos, are children—which could mean the end of fertility treatments like IVF, where not every embryo created may survive, making providers fearful of liability.
AllPaths is therefore advocating for the Right to IVF Act, reintroduced in both houses of Congress this past July, which would “establish federal protections for patients seeking fertility treatment and the health providers that deliver that care,” Clancy explained. The bill would also require employer-sponsored and public insurance plans to cover the treatments and would expand the fertility and family-building services covered under servicemembers’, veterans’, and federal employees’ health care.
Clancy noted, too, that AllPaths was among the advocates making sure that the act’s language uses a revised definition of infertility that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) put forth in 2023, which includes LGBTQ couples and single people who may need fertility treatments simply because they don’t have both egg and sperm.
At AllPaths, she said, “We know how treatments like IVF and IUI are medically necessary healthcare procedures and not elective things that people are just doing for fun. People are doing them because they need to build their families. We want federal legislation to reflect the reality of family building needs for anyone, regardless of who they love and how they need to build their family, what their finances are, or their ZIP code.”
Clancy encouraged people to contact their members of Congress about this legislation. “Tell them why it’s important to you,” she recommended. “It’s the individual stories that make the biggest difference and can move the needle on legislation like this.”
Federal legislation may take time, however, so AllPaths is also advocating for an insurance mandate to cover fertility treatment in Vermont, the only New England state without one. It is also working to ensure that states which already have a mandate, like Massachusetts, use the ASRM’s more LGBTQ-inclusive definition of infertility.
Clancy advises anyone going through the family building process right now to “Find your people” and “Put support in place as soon as possible.” That could include AllPaths’ offerings as well as professional mental health support. “It’s going to be difficult, even if it goes smoothly,” she said. “Just know that so many people are here for you and want to help make this journey easier.”
AllPaths will be holding its biggest annual event, the Footsteps for Family Building walk, on October 4, 2026. It is both a fundraiser and a time for people to “celebrate their journey,” Clancy said. People can walk virtually from anywhere, or join in person in Ashford, Mass. (Visit allpathsfb.org for details.)