What does a gestational carrier agreement cover?
A gestational carrier agreement (GCA) is the contract between you, the intended parents, and your surrogate. It is the document both sides rely on for the rest of the journey. It turns what you agreed at matching into terms that can be enforced, and it sets out what happens when something does not go to plan.
A typical agreement covers:
- Compensation and expenses. The surrogate's base compensation, monthly allowance, milestone payments, lost wages, and reimbursements, and when each is paid from escrow.
- Medical decisions. The number of embryos to transfer, prenatal testing, who chooses the OB and delivering hospital, and how decisions about her health are made.
- Termination and selective reduction. The circumstances in which the intended parents may request either, and what follows financially.
- Vaccination. Which vaccines the surrogate will or will not receive during pregnancy.
- Conduct during pregnancy. Travel limits, activities, substances, and attendance at appointments.
- Insurance. Her health coverage for the pregnancy, life insurance, and who pays premiums and deductibles.
- Parentage. That you are the legal parents, and the steps to establish it before birth.
- Communication and contact. How often you are in touch during the pregnancy and after birth.
- What if something goes wrong. A failed transfer, a miscarriage, a medical complication, or a breach of the agreement.
| GCA section | What it decides | Who typically negotiates it |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation | Base compensation, allowances, milestone and loss payments, escrow timing | Both attorneys |
| Medical decisions | Number of embryos, prenatal testing, OB and hospital, health decisions | Both attorneys, informed by the clinic |
| Termination | When parents may request termination; financial consequences | Both attorneys; positions agreed at matching |
| Selective reduction | When parents may request reduction of a multiple pregnancy | Both attorneys; positions agreed at matching |
| Vaccines | Which vaccines she will receive in pregnancy | Both attorneys; positions agreed at matching |
| Travel | Travel limits in later pregnancy; who pays travel to the clinic | Both attorneys |
| Insurance | Her health plan or a dedicated policy; life insurance; deductibles | Both attorneys, after the PLS insurance review |
| Parentage | That you are the legal parents; pre-birth filing | Your attorney, with hers |
| Breach | What happens if either side breaks the agreement | Both attorneys |
The termination, selective reduction and vaccine sections should not be a surprise to either side. At Private Label Surrogacy (PLS), they are matching questions. Two parties who disagree on them are not matched. See termination and selective reduction clauses and vaccine clauses.
Why does each side need a separate attorney?
Because the two sides have different interests, and each needs someone whose only job is to protect them.
Your attorney makes sure the agreement protects your parentage, your money and your decisions. The surrogate's attorney makes sure it protects her health, her compensation and her right to make decisions about her own body. One lawyer cannot do both. In Illinois, independent counsel for each side is also required by statute for the agreement to be enforceable. Reviewed by counsel.
PLS does not write the agreement and does not employ attorneys. It refers you to independent reproductive-law attorneys. You may choose your own, provided they practice reproductive law in the state where the surrogate lives and will deliver. The surrogate chooses her own counsel, and her attorney answers only to her.
This independence is a PLS policy, not a formality. An attorney paid by the agency has a conflict whenever the agency's interests differ from yours. PLS does not take referral fees from attorneys.
What do the surrogacy legal fees cost and who pays?
You pay for both attorneys, yours and the surrogate's. The fees are paid from the independent escrow account as the work is done.
Drafting and negotiating the agreement typically costs $8,000 to $12,000 for both sides' counsel combined. This estimate is being confirmed against the PLS third-party cost schedule.
Legal fees are part of your third-party costs, which total $15,300 to $29,000 at PLS. That total also covers escrow administration, the psychological evaluation, background checks, the insurance review, surrogate travel and local monitoring. Legal work is the main driver of the range. A straightforward agreement with a surrogate delivering in her home state sits at the low end. International intended parents, a surrogate near a state line, or a state with a court-based parentage process add attorney time.
The parentage filing later in the pregnancy is billed separately by your attorney. See the pre-birth order.
Ask each attorney for a written fee estimate that separates the agreement, the parentage filing, and any out-of-state or international work.
How long does contract drafting take?
Drafting and negotiation typically take 3 to 6 weeks. This estimate is being confirmed.
Legal and medical foundations together take 1 to 2 months at PLS. The contract runs in parallel with the insurance review, escrow funding and the clinic's screening of the surrogate.
The usual sequence:
- Both sides confirm the match in writing.
- Each side retains an attorney.
- Your attorney drafts the agreement.
- Her attorney reviews it with her and proposes changes.
- The attorneys negotiate open points.
- Both sides sign.
- The attorneys send a legal clearance letter to the fertility clinic.
What slows this down is usually attorney availability and one or two open clauses. Settling the hard decisions at matching keeps negotiation short.
What clauses cause the most negotiation?
The clauses that take the most time are rarely the ones about money. They are the ones about decisions:
- Termination and selective reduction. Even when both sides agreed in principle at matching, the exact circumstances need precise wording.
- Number of embryos. Whether a double transfer is ever allowed.
- Vaccination. Which vaccines, and when.
- Travel. How late in pregnancy the surrogate may travel, and how far from her delivering hospital.
- Attendance. Whether you attend appointments and the birth, and who is in the delivery room.
- Insurance details. Who pays deductibles and what happens if her plan changes during the pregnancy.
- Lost wages. How her lost wages and her partner's are documented and reimbursed.
Compensation is usually the simplest section because PLS publishes its compensation schedule. The surrogate knows what she will receive before she meets you, and you know what you will pay.
What does Illinois law require in the contract?
The Illinois Gestational Surrogacy Act (2005) makes a compensated gestational surrogacy agreement enforceable when its requirements are met. Those include that the surrogate is at least 21, has given birth before, and has completed medical and mental-health evaluations; that each side has independent legal counsel; that the agreement is signed before any medication or embryo transfer; and that the embryo is created through IVF so the surrogate has no genetic link to the child.
The Equality for Every Family Act, signed December 2025, removed the requirement that at least one intended parent be genetically related to the child and requires independent counsel for both sides.
Statute details on this page are pending review by counsel. Reviewed by [attorney name], [firm], on [date].
PLS's own requirements sit on top of the statute. A PLS surrogate is 21 to 43, has had at least one healthy full-term pregnancy and is raising a child now, and has been through a seven-step screening that includes a physician records review by Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, and a psychological evaluation by an independent licensed professional.
If your surrogate lives in another state, that state's law governs the agreement and the parentage process, and both attorneys must practice there.
What is a legal clearance letter?
A legal clearance letter is the attorneys' written confirmation to the fertility clinic that the gestational carrier agreement has been signed by both sides. The clinic will not start the surrogate's medications without it.
At PLS, no medications start until three conditions are met: the agreement is signed, the clinic has received the legal clearance letter, and escrow is funded. You deposit $10,000 into the independent escrow account at match and the balance before medications start.
That order protects both sides. The surrogate never takes a medication without a signed agreement behind it and funds in escrow to pay her. You never pay for a medical cycle that is not backed by a signed contract.
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.
- ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), guidance on gestational carriers. https://www.asrm.org
- SEEDS, Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy.