ABC | November 18, 2023
The Australian Capital Territory government introduced a bill updating its surrogacy laws. The changes would allow single parents to have a child via altruistic surrogacy and remove the requirement for an intended parent to be genetically related to the child.
The Conversation | November 8, 2023
Finding a surrogate in Australia is challenging, motivating some intended parents to go overseas to find a surrogate. International surrogacy brings its own challenges––not only for intended parents, but also for surrogates and the children resulting from these arrangements.
ABC News | September 8, 2023
Many Australian intended parents seek surrogates in other countries because of legal barriers at home, but complex regulations abroad and exploitative practices at some clinics make it difficult to find workable and ethical surrogacy arrangements. After a Greek surrogacy clinic was raided due to charges of human trafficking, Australian intended parents who had arrangements with the clinic face uncertainties about whether they will be able to take home their children.
The Guardian | March 18, 2023
Although Victoria legalized adoption for same-sex couples in 2017, that route to family formation leads nowhere for most same-sex couples hoping to adopt––in part due to bias and in part due to decreasing adoptions more broadly. Many same-sex couples turn to surrogacy instead.
Samantha Selinger-Morris | The Sydney Morning Herald | November 10, 2022
In Australia, ethical concerns with commercial surrogacy resulted in a ban on the practice; only altruistic surrogacy is legal. Couples often venture abroad in the hopes of finding a surrogate in countries where payment is legal.
Kathryn Madden | Marie Claire | November 2, 2022
With a legislative prohibition on compensated surrogacy, many Australian couples look abroad for surrogates, sometimes pursuing dangerous or illegal arrangements. Do these precarious agreements leave surrogates vulnerable to exploitation?
Mirage | May 12, 2022
Australia’s Northern Territory passed the Surrogacy Bill 2022, which regulates domestic surrogacy for the first time and outlaws commercial surrogacy. The Bill establishes frameworks for intended parents, prioritizes children’s rights, and protects surrogates’ autonomy.
Holly Hales | NCA NewsWire | April 5, 2022
A new dad became the first single man in Victoria to father a biological child through surrogacy. In Australia, strict surrogacy regulations ban paid surrogacy and require extensive counseling and screening for the biological parent.
Australian Associated Press | The Guardian | July 27, 2021
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation covered a story about a couple’s surrogacy arrangement in a 2019 article about Ukraine’s commercial surrogacy industry. The couple sued ABC for allegedly portraying them as heartless parents who abandoned their surrogate-born, disabled child Bridget in Ukraine. This June, the couple withdrew their defamation case due to a lack of funds, but will still be asked to pay ABC’s legal costs.
Caitlin Fitzsimmons | The Sydney Morning Herald | June 13, 2021
A surrogacy education charity is helping Australian citizens obtain COVID travel exemptions from the government to go abroad for IVF treatment or surrogacy arrangements not available under federal or state law. All but one state in Australia forbid commercial surrogacy and all require egg donation be altruistic, so eggs are not available and intended parents are traveling outside the country for fertility treatments. Proponents of the Australian surrogacy legislation express shock that such a charity would help citizens circumvent a law meant to protect women from the exploitative nature of commercial surrogacy.
