Illinois surrogacy law: what the Gestational Surrogacy Act requires

Reviewed by [attorney name], [firm], on [date]. Statute details on this page are pending review by counsel.

This page explains Illinois surrogacy law for intended parents and surrogates, and how Private Label Surrogacy builds each journey around it. It is written by Nancy Block, RN, who has worked in Illinois egg donation and surrogacy since 2000. It is not legal advice. Your own attorney, and the surrogate's own attorney, advise each of you on your agreement.

What does the Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act cover?

The Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act has governed surrogacy in Illinois since 2005. It covers gestational surrogacy: an arrangement in which a woman carries an embryo created through IVF and has no genetic link to the child. It sets eligibility requirements for the surrogate and the intended parents, rules for what the agreement must contain and when it must be signed, and a process for establishing the intended parents' parentage before birth. When those requirements are met, a compensated gestational surrogacy agreement is enforceable.

In plain terms, the Act is why an Illinois journey can be planned. The surrogate knows her compensation, expenses and insurance are written into an enforceable agreement. The intended parents know they will be the legal parents at birth. Neither side is relying on a judge's discretion after the baby arrives.

Traditional surrogacy, where the surrogate's own egg is used, is not covered by the Act. PLS arranges gestational surrogacy only.

What must a surrogate meet under Illinois law?

Under the Act, a gestational surrogate must be at least 21 years old, must have carried and delivered at least one child, and must have completed a medical evaluation and a mental-health evaluation. She must also have independent legal counsel.

Confirm the exact list of statutory surrogate requirements with counsel.

PLS's own criteria sit on top of the statute and are stricter in places. A PLS surrogate must be 21 to 43, a US citizen or permanent resident, have a BMI under 33, have had at least one healthy full-term pregnancy and be raising a child now, be a non-smoker, not receive government assistance, live in a stable home, and not currently take antidepressants.

Here is how PLS checks those things:

• Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, reads every candidate's prenatal and delivery records and writes a physician medical summary for the intended parents' clinic.
• The clinic performs the medical screening.
• An independent licensed professional, not a PLS employee, performs the psychological evaluation.
• A background check and an insurance review are completed before match.

What must intended parents meet?

The Act requires the intended parents to have independent legal counsel. Before December 2025, the Act also required that at least one intended parent contribute an egg or sperm. The Equality for Every Family Act removed that requirement.

Confirm the exact list of statutory intended-parent requirements with counsel.

What PLS asks of intended parents is practical rather than statutory. You need a fertility clinic, embryos or a plan to create them, a budget for the full journey, and the willingness to fund independent escrow before any medication starts. At the first consultation, Nancy walks through each of those with you, along with the timeline: about 9 months from signing to meeting a surrogate today, with a target of 6 months or fewer, and 18 to 24 months for the whole journey.

Illinois does not restrict surrogacy by marital status or sexual orientation. Single parents, married and unmarried couples, and LGBTQ parents all build families through Illinois journeys. You do not need to live in Illinois to work with PLS; families across the US and abroad do.

What must the agreement contain to be enforceable?

For the agreement to be enforceable under the Act, it must be signed before any medication or embryo transfer begins, each side must be represented by independent counsel, and the embryo must be created through IVF so the surrogate has no genetic link to the child.

A well-drafted agreement also sets out everything both sides need to rely on: the surrogate's compensation and expenses, her insurance and life insurance, how decisions about her health are made, what happens if a transfer fails or a pregnancy is lost, and how the escrow account pays out. Your attorney and the surrogate's attorney negotiate those terms for their own clients.

Confirm the statutory contents of the agreement with counsel; do not cite section numbers until counsel confirms.

PLS's process is designed so these conditions are met in the right order:

1. Match accepted by both sides.
2. Each side retains its own attorney. PLS refers to independent reproductive-law attorneys and does not employ lawyers. The intended parents pay for both.
3. The attorneys draft and negotiate the gestational carrier agreement.
4. Intended parents fund the independent licensed escrow account: $10,000 at match and the balance before medications start. They may choose their own escrow company.
5. Everyone signs.
6. Only then does the clinic start medications.

PLS never holds client money. That has been true since 2017, and it is the reason the Surro Connections collapse in late 2025 and the SEAM escrow failure, which involved more than $16 million, did not touch PLS families.

How does parentage get established before birth?

When the agreement meets the Act, the intended parents are the legal parents from birth. The attorneys for both sides certify that the requirements were met and file the certifications before the birth. The hospital then issues the original birth certificate naming the intended parents. The surrogate has no parental rights or obligations, and no adoption follows. A court hearing is not usually required.

In practice, the attorneys file during the second trimester, after the pregnancy is confirmed, so the paperwork is ready if the baby arrives early. PLS coordinates the timing with both attorneys and with the delivering hospital, and writes the birth plan so the hospital knows who the intended parents are before labor begins. See how an Illinois pre-birth parentage order works.

What changed in December 2025?

The Equality for Every Family Act, signed in December 2025, amended the Act in two ways that matter for surrogacy. It removed the requirement that at least one intended parent be genetically related to the child, so parents using donor eggs and donor sperm, or a donated embryo, receive the same pre-birth parentage. It also requires independent counsel for both the surrogate and the intended parents.

PLS already required separate attorneys for each side, so for PLS families the counsel rule changed paperwork, not practice. Nothing about surrogate compensation or PLS eligibility changed. Agreements signed before the effective date may remain governed by the prior rules unless amended; confirm the effective date and transition rules with counsel. Read more on the Equality for Every Family Act page.

What happens if the agreement does not meet the Act?

If an agreement does not meet the Act's requirements, the pre-birth parentage process may not be available, and parentage is not automatic.

This is the strongest argument for doing the steps in order and for each side having its own experienced attorney. The cost of a compliant agreement is a fraction of the cost and stress of fixing a non-compliant one after the baby is born. PLS does not start medications until the agreement is signed and escrow is funded, without exceptions.

Consequences of a non-compliant agreement: confirm with counsel.

Does Illinois law apply if the surrogate or parents live elsewhere?

It depends on where the surrogate lives and where she delivers. The law of the state where the birth happens generally governs the birth certificate and parentage. If an Illinois surrogate lives near a state line and might deliver in Wisconsin or Indiana, her attorney and yours plan for that in the agreement.

Intended parents do not need to live in Illinois. Out-of-state and international parents regularly match with Illinois surrogates. International parents also need to plan the baby's travel documents and home-country citizenship. A federal executive order dated August 6, 2026, on citizenship for children born through compensated surrogacy to two non-citizen parents is under litigation. Status as of [date], reviewed by counsel.

For surrogates outside Illinois, PLS recruits in surrogacy-friendly states, and each state's law applies to that journey. Michigan, for example, legalized compensated surrogacy in April 2025. New York licenses surrogacy agencies; PLS is applying. See surrogacy laws by state.

Sources

• Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act (2005), Illinois General Assembly. Pending review by counsel.
• Equality for Every Family Act, signed December 2025, Illinois General Assembly. Pending review by counsel.
• SEEDS, Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy, of which Nancy Block, RN, is a former President.