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New assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy legislation for WA

On Thursday 18 May 2023, WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson announced that the McGowan Government would accept the recommendations of a 2022 Ministerial Expert Panel into surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology (ART) in WA.

They will now move to developing legislation which will help to expand eligibility for altruistic surrogacy, enabling people in same-sex relationships including single men, transgender people, and intersex people to access surrogacy, and permit reciprocal in vitro fertilisation.

Rainbow Futures Western Australia (RFWA), alongside many other community activists, groups and organisations have been working hard to lobby for changes to surrogacy laws in WA for a long time.

We welcome this announcement, and would like to acknowledge and thank all those involved in advocating for this positive and inclusive outcome for LGBTIQA+ people and families in WA.

For too long, many people in our communities have been excluded and faced unneccesary barriers to starting a familty.

Updating this legislation will change lives.

It will also ensure WA is in compliance with the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) which was amended in 2013 to allow protection on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and
intersex status.

RFWA and many others made submissions to the Ministerial Expert Panel to advocate for the inclusion of LGBTIQA+ people in surrogacy laws in WA which was reflected in the Public Discussion Paper published in July 2022.

For more information, the final report is available on the WA Government Department of Health website.

An image statement posted on Mark McGowan’s Facebook page reads: “We know that WA’s reproductive technology and surrogacy laws have not kept up with medical advancements and our changing society. So we’re doing something about it. We’ll work on two new bills to ensure better access for women who face impending infertility, single men, people in same-sex relationships, transgender people and intersex people. And we’ll improve access to information for many donor-conceived people. It’s the right thing to do, and it will change lives.”