The WA government this week introduced landmark legislation to increase access to assisted reproductive technology (ART) and surrogacy in the state.
The Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Bill 2025 introduced to Parliament this week will remove long-standing barriers to access, enabling same-sex couples, single people, transgender and intersex West Australians to access ART and surrogacy.
The changes will bring WA in line with much of the rest of the country.
The Bill aims to ensure the best interests of children born through ART and surrogacy are paramount and maintains safety and quality assurances through the licensing of fertility clinics by the Department of Health, the State Government said in a statement.
It will also extend the rights of donor-conceived people, where records are available, to access important information about their genetic heritage, regardless of when they were conceived, to help them make better informed decisions about family planning and healthcare decisions.
Health Minister Meredith Hammat said the reforms were about helping more people realise their dreams of starting a family.
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Concept Fertility Centre General Manager Jen Chambers welcomed the reform as long overdue, adding that the legislation had been “a long time in the incubator so to speak”.
“First and foremost, this news is about equality,” she said.
“For too long now our ART and surrogacy legislation has not served West Australians equally.”
WA’s Surrogacy Act came into place in 2008, legalising surrogacy for heterosexual couples. Surrogacy for sex couples, single people, transgender and intersex people has lagged behind.
In 2019 Associate Professor Sonia Allan completed an independent review (the Allan Review) into the existing state laws. A two-part report was published as part of this review and as a result a Ministerial Expert Panel was convened in May 2022 to ensure new legislation reflected social trends alongside medical and scientific advances for the accessible and safe use of ART and surrogacy.
The expert panel’s review the state’s surrogacy and ART laws was completed by 2022 and found them to be outdated and discriminatory.
Dr Chambers has coordinated Concept Fertility’s surrogacy program for the past five years and said the Subiaco-based clinic had been involved in the process of seeing four babies born to surrogacy in the past two years.
“Over this time, I have had many conversations with same sex couples wanting to pursue same sex surrogacy and each conversation ended the same – ‘It’s not legal in WA but please don’t lose hope, change will come, so let’s keep in touch’,” she said.
Dr Chambers said if the legislation goes through, she will welcome not having to have that conversation.
Concept Fertility Centre’s Medical Director Dr Sebastian Leathersich added that while WA was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to regulate ART and IVF in 1991, now that those laws were more 30 years old, they were outdated and no longer fit for purpose.
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“These long overdue reforms reflect contemporary societal values and, if passed, will make it easier for West Australians to access ART without needing to travel interstate or overseas,” he said.
“In particular, same-sex couples, single people and gender-diverse West Australians will be able to access IVF and surrogacy, helping them to start and build their families.
“The proposed legislation will also remove other barriers to fertility treatment such as the need to ‘prove’ infertility before offering IVF, as well as some of the restrictions on pre-implantation genetic testing, giving patients and clinicians the autonomy to choose the best path to parenthood for their specific situation.”
Monash IVF West Medical Director Dr Tamara Hunter also welcomed the legislation.
“We must do more to support those who require fertility treatment to start their families, regardless of their circumstances,” she said.
“This legislation is a step in the right direction and we look forward to seeing meaningful change in the near future.”
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Dr Leathersich described the more than 40 individual pieces of legislation governing ART and IVF across Australia as a patchwork of laws.
“With increasing demand for ART anticipated over coming years, national harmonisation of the legislative and regulatory environment should be prioritised so that all Australians can access the same care regardless of where they live.”
Dr Leathersich said it was vital for clinics and clinicians to ensure they are compliant within this tightly regulated area of medical practice.
“The Ministerial Expert Panel recommended that the expansion of eligibility criteria for ART be implemented as soon as possible, so clinics will need to be prepared for these changes,” he said.
“This includes educating staff and updating systems, protocols, and processes to support implementation of the improved access to reproductive care, whilst keeping the wellbeing of any child that might be born from ART at the centre of any clinical decisions made.”
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