WA woman unable to legally undergo IVF in home state became 'reproductive refugee'

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Western Australian state government says it will introduce laws to improve access to surrogacy and IVF by the end of the year, seven years after it commissioned an independent review into the legislation, which found them outdated and discriminatory. It comes as single women, same-sex couples and men who aren't eligible for the procedures continue to travel interstate.

Transcript

00:00Four years after starting her fertility journey, Jane was dealt a crushing blow.

00:09I was not eligible to access my own eggs and use them for the final stages of IVF.

00:16And that's because I was not classified as, in inverted commas, sub-fertile.

00:22WA is the only Australian jurisdiction where single women can't access IVF

00:27unless they're diagnosed with reproductive problems.

00:31The laws state a woman's age can't be considered as a reason for infertility.

00:36Because of this, Jane was forced to travel interstate for IVF and is now 30 weeks pregnant.

00:43I found out that I am having a daughter and so it really is important to me that she grows up

00:50and she has bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom.

00:54The state government has for years been promising an overhaul of its assisted reproductive technology

01:00and surrogacy laws, which regulate the use of IVF.

01:04They also prevent same-sex couples and single men from accessing surrogacy.

01:09And that's probably the best that can be said about WA laws regulating IVF.

01:13They are creaky now. They need to be updated.

01:16And the surrogacy laws are just simply embarrassing.

01:20I wrote to the then Health Minister, now Premier, back in 2017 asking for these changes to be made

01:27and we're still not there.

01:29The government today committing to a deadline.

01:32Well, it's complex legislation. We're working on it at the moment.

01:35We're looking to introduce it as soon as we can.

01:38Introduce it this year?

01:39That's our intention, yes.

01:41The reforms expected to bring WA in line with the rest of the country.

01:45We're working on it.

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