Is Surrogacy Legal in South Carolina?

Surrogacy Friendly States and a Shift Towards Surrogacy-Friendly Laws.

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Is Surrogacy Legal in South Carolina?

Yes, South Carolina allows for gestational surrogacy and surrogate compensation. In fact, existing state case law supports gestational carrier agreements. South Carolina does have its own unique regulations regarding parentage order, parental rights, and stepparent/single parent adoptions. In general, married couples can both be listed as parents on the temporary pre-birth order and the final order of parentage after delivery. Unmarried couples may have to go through a second parent adoption to put both names on the birth certificate. The statutes may change depending on biological connection to the child, if donor eggs or sperm are used, the gender of the intended parents, and even the county in which the orders are requested. As in any state, it’s important to find a surrogacy expert experienced in South Carolina’s specific laws and regulations before signing a gestational carrier agreement.

  • Same-Sex Friendly

  • Married Couple Friendly

  • Non-Married Friendly*

  • Single Friendly

  • Donor Egg, Sperm, or Embryo Friendly

  • Pre-Birth Order, Post-Birth Order, or Post-Adoption Order

Is surrogacy legal in Georgia

How Do I Find a Surrogate in South Carolina?

Eggceptional Fertility makes it easy to find a quality surrogate in South Carolina. We’ve created this guide with everything you need to get started on your surrogacy journey. Learn how to find an expert surrogacy agency, how surrogacy works, and South Carolina surrogacy laws, and then schedule your initial consultation today!

How Much Does Surrogacy Cost?

Surrogacy involves a significant financial investment. The total costs depend on your specific situation and needs, location, and other factors. In general, the costs of surrogacy can be broken down into the following categories:

  • Surrogate Compensation
  • Travel & Miscellaneous Expenses
  • Agency Fees
  • Medical & Mental Health Screenings
  • Surrogate Medical Insurance
  • Legal Fees
  • IVF & Embryo Transfer

As we mentioned, intended parents compensate surrogates for their time, effort, and energy as she carries a pregnancy and delivers a baby. Surrogacy agreements also often include additional benefits for the surrogate, such as a stipend for maternity clothes or compensation for any missed time at work.

At Eggceptional Fertility, we offer our clients full transparency when it comes to fees and expenses. For a detailed explanation of our current surrogacy fees please click here.

What to Look for in a South Carolina Surrogacy Agency

Surrogacy is a major emotional, physical, and financial commitment. It’s important to work with a quality surrogacy agency to save on time, money, and energy, and ensure the smoothest possible journey. To find an excellent surrogacy agency in South Carolina, look for one with:

  1. Experience – the surrogacy journey is long (often over a year) and complex, with thousands of important details to ensure success and safety for everyone involved. While surrogacy experiences can share certain similarities, oftentimes unexpected situations arise. A surrogacy agency with years of experience will help you navigate your journey to parenthood with skill and confidence.
  2. Compassion – Intended parents pursuing surrogacy can feel a wide range of emotions – excitement, anxiety, joy, nervousness, and more. All these feelings are completely valid, and you deserve to work with an agency who will support you emotionally as well as logistically. Listen to your intuition when you meet with potential surrogacy agencies, and stay away from anywhere that makes you feel like a number instead of a whole human being.
  3. Transparency – Surrogacy is complicated, but it shouldn’t be mysterious. As an intended parent, you should feel fully informed and aware of every aspect of the process. Of course, you won’t need to manage these details – that’s what your agency is for! Still, a great Alabama surrogacy agency will be open and honest about answering your questions, whether it’s about their matching process, the surrogate timeline, or their costs and fees.

Since 2008, Eggceptional Fertility has provided expert surrogacy services to South Carolina families, led by our belief that everyone deserves the chance to build a family. Our intended parents, surrogates, and egg donors all make up our extended Eggceptional community, united by our shared dream of helping families.

Who Benefits from Surrogacy?

Surrogacy allows people who cannot carry or deliver a baby on their own to become parents, often while still sharing a biological connection with their child. In surrogacy, a gestational carrier (or “surrogate”) receives an embryo developed from the intended parents and/or an egg or sperm donor. The surrogate then carries the pregnancy and then delivers a baby. The surrogate doesn’t have any parental rights to the baby. In fact, surrogates generously offer to bring someone else’s baby into the world simply because they want to help people become parents. In return for the surrogate’s effort and time, she receives compensation from the intended parent(s).

A South Carolina couple or individual might choose to find a surrogate for any of several reasons, including:

  • They have healthy eggs, but can’t safely become pregnant
  • They had a prior hysterectomy
  • Neither parent can carry a pregnancy (for instance, gay male couples)

Some intended parents may need to also use donor eggs or sperm on their path to parenthood.

A Guide to the South Carolina Surrogacy Process

In the surrogacy process, intended parents first schedule an initial consultation with a surrogacy agency. This first appointment allows the intended parents to get to know their agency and vice versa. At Eggceptional Fertility, we offer a free initial consultation to all intended parents where we ask you about your hopes, goals, and questions about the process. We will also go through the entire experience in more detail, including how we help you find a South Carolina surrogate through our expert matching process. From there, we’ll start scheduling meetings with potential surrogates until you find the right fit for your family building goals. You can read more about the surrogacy process here. While the process is complex, it all starts with a single step: – schedule your initial consultation today.