It’s time for some surrogacy law reform campaigning!

You might have heard that the Australian government has announced a review of national surrogacy laws, which we are hopeful will lead to surrogacy law reform. The Australian Law Reform Commission will be reviewing surrogacy laws and there will be an opportunity for community, groups and professionals to provide feedback and engage in the review.

It is important that the Commission hears about the lived experiences of the community, including surrogates, intended parents, parents through surrogacy and people born through surrogacy. This should include people who have experience of Australian surrogacy, and of international surrogacy.

Perhaps you’re an intended parent who travelled overseas for surrogacy but had trouble bringing your baby home? Or been impacted by changing laws and situations in another country?

Or maybe you’ve had trouble obtaining Australian citizenship and a passport for your child?

As intended parents, it’s difficult to find a surrogate in Australia unless you have an offer from a friend or family member. What’s it been like, searching for a surrogate on Facebook?

If you’ve entered an Australian surrogacy arrangement and found the post-birth parentage order process grueling, the Commission needs to hear from you too.

Perhaps you’ve had an experience with a service provider, agency, fertility clinic or someone marketing surrogacy to you that you think should be shared?

If you’re a gay couple in Western Australia, have you had to consider moving interstate or heading overseas for surrogacy because it’s still illegal to do it in your home state?

Or maybe as a person who still has their uterus, you’ve had difficulty being signed off to pursue surrogacy?

As a surrogate, your views about how we can encourage more surrogacy in Australia are really important.

People born through surrogacy have very unique lived experiences that also need to be heard.

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can have a real impact on how lawmakers view an issue. The Surrogacy Podcast proved that there is value in sharing our stories, for our communities and also for everyone else.

Watch this space to find out how you can be involved, and subscribe below for updates. We will provide details of how you can make a submission and some ideas for what you might ask for in future surrogacy laws. We can provide tips on how to write a submission – you don’t need to be a lawyer to share your story!

Campaign allies!

Are you part of a community that needs surrogacy to grow their family? Infertility communities, and LGBTQIA+ communities have important stories that should be shared as part of the Review. We’ve love to hear from you so we can work together to engage our communities and make our submissions count.

While the Review will take some time – the report is not due until July 2026 – there may not be any changes to the law for some time. Remember, that your submission might not make a huge difference to your own journey, but it could change surrogacy for the future, including for other intended parents and surrogates who are yet to join the community.

Get in touch if you’d like to join forces!

I will be travelling the world between March and May 2025, to research best practice surrogacy to inform law reform in Australia as part of a Churchill Fellowship. I am hopeful that my learnings will inform the surrogacy law reform campaign and the Commissioner’s review.

Are you itching to get started and to make a difference to surrogacy law reform in Australia? You could always join our research campaign to improve surrogacy birth care – if you’ve experienced a surrogacy birth in the last 5 years, we’d love to hear from you!