You may have heard that the Australian Law Reform Commission surrogacy law review. Submissions are due by 5pm on Friday 11 July 2025. Submissions to the surrogacy law review from the community – intended parents, surrogates and persons born – are crucial to inform the Commission about the lived experiences of people who know surrogacy best.

You can head to the ALRC website for more information about the surrogacy law review. You can also watch my webinar about how you can make a submission and what’s involved. And you can download my Make a Submission fact sheet, and free template Submission to help you get started.

I am writing my own submission, but may not have time to share it before the deadline. In the meantime, read on for some things you might like to think about and include in your submission.

Each story is unique. Tell your story from the heart.

What should we ask for? You might consider including something about:

National surrogacy laws. We have 9 laws in Australia regulating surrogacy. It’s time we had one law for the entire country. We need to harmonise surrogacy laws so that everyone can access the same laws no matter their postcode.

Compensated surrogacy. Everyone is paid in surrogacy, except one person. Let’s start compensating surrogates for their time, effort and risk.

Pre-birth Orders. We can have clarity about legal parentage before a baby arrives, and make it easier for everyone. The current post-birth parentage order processes are inefficient, frustrating and expensive.

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Regulate the industry. What if we had a framework for surrogacy matching services that protected everyone involved? Let’s regulate the players. Surrogacy matching services can work well to help intended parents and surrogates find each other – but they need to be professionally run, adhere to business and ethical practices and protect the rights of everyone involved. We can only do that if we properly regulate the industry.

Decriminalise international commercial surrogacy. I mean seriously. There is no benefit to criminalising parents for the fact that they had a baby overseas.

We need to do away with laws that criminalise something that is legal in the destination country.

Raise awareness. If we’re going to make surrogacy accessible in Australia, we need to make sure everyone knows about it. Government can help raise awareness and educate the community about best practice, ethical surrogacy. Raising awareness can also assist with the services that people need to access, including Medicare, Centrelink, parental leave and hospital care for a surrogacy birth.

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Remember, you don’t have to answer every question on the Issues Paper for the surrogacy law review. You should answer Question One about your personal, lived experience of surrogacy. Everything else after that is important, but only if you feel it’s something you have ideas or thoughts about.

Let me know when you’ve made your submission to the surrogacy law review! You can email me at sarah@sarahjefford.com.

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If you are new to surrogacy, you can read about how to find a surrogate, or how to become a surrogate yourself. You can also download the free Surrogacy Handbook which explains the processes and options.

Sarah has published a book, More Than Just a Baby: A Guide to Surrogacy for Intended Parents and Surrogates, the only guide to surrogacy in Australia.

You can also book in for a consult with me below, and check out the legal services I provide.