Colorado Surrogacy Laws: Eligibility, Agreement, and Parentage

Colorado surrogacy laws are set out in the Colorado Surrogacy Agreement Act, a 2021 statute that makes both gestational and genetic surrogacy agreements enforceable and recognizes the intended parents as the child’s legal parents the moment the baby is born, as long as the agreement meets the Act’s eligibility and drafting rules. The law treats married couples, unmarried partners, same-sex couples, and single intended parents the same, and no adoption proceeding is required to confirm the parent-child relationship.

The Act is codified at C.R.S. §§ 19-4.5-101 through 19-4.5-114. Before 2021, Colorado families relied on scattered court decisions and older parentage provisions; the dedicated statute replaced that with a single statewide framework covering eligibility, agreement contents, parentage, termination, and enforcement. A surrogacy agreement under the Act is not treated as an adoption or a surrender of custody.

Who Can Pursue Surrogacy in Colorado

Colorado does not restrict surrogacy by family structure. Pre-birth parentage orders are issued whether the intended parents are a heterosexual married couple, a same-sex couple, unmarried partners, or a single individual, and the intended parents do not need to have a genetic connection to the child for the order to be granted. That breadth is one reason people from other states look to Colorado.

Colorado is also one of the few states that explicitly permits both gestational surrogacy, where the surrogate has no genetic link to the child, and genetic surrogacy, where the surrogate contributes her own egg. The same statutory framework governs both, though gestational surrogacy is far more common in practice.

Jurisdictional Connection

At least one of three things must tie the arrangement to Colorado: a party is a Colorado resident, the birth is expected to occur in Colorado, or the assisted reproduction procedure will take place in Colorado.¹ Out-of-state intended parents can use Colorado’s framework when the surrogate lives in Colorado, the IVF clinic is there, or delivery is planned at a Colorado hospital.

Eligibility Requirements

The Act sets minimum qualifications for both sides. An agreement signed by someone who does not meet them may not qualify as enforceable.

Surrogate

A person agreeing to carry the pregnancy, whether as a gestational or genetic surrogate, must:²

Be at least 21 years old.
Have previously given birth to at least one child.
Complete a medical evaluation related to the surrogacy, performed by a licensed medical doctor.
Complete a mental health consultation with a licensed mental health professional.
Have her own attorney, licensed in Colorado, throughout the arrangement.

Intended Parents

Each intended parent must independently:²

Be at least 21 years old.
Complete a medical evaluation related to the surrogacy by a licensed medical doctor.
Have their own attorney, licensed in Colorado, throughout the arrangement.

The statute requires a mental health consultation only for the surrogate. Many agencies and clinics recommend or require one for intended parents too, but it is not a statutory condition for enforceability.

How the Agreement Must Be Drafted and Signed

Meeting the eligibility criteria is the first step. The agreement itself has to be executed following specific rules, all of which must be satisfied before the first embryo transfer or other surrogacy-related procedure (apart from the required medical evaluation and mental health consultation).¹

Parties and Signatures

Every intended parent, the surrogate, and the surrogate’s spouse (if married) must all be named parties. Each has to sign, and every signature must be attested by a notarial officer.¹ The spousal-consent rule heads off later disputes over parental rights from the surrogate’s spouse.

Independent Counsel

Both sides need their own attorney. The surrogate must have independent legal representation, and each intended parent must as well. Intended parents are allowed to pay for the surrogate’s attorney, which is standard. These are statutory eligibility requirements, not optional recommendations, and skipping them can undermine the enforceability of the agreement.²

Timing

The agreement must be fully signed and notarized before any medical procedure related to the surrogacy, aside from the evaluations needed to qualify. Starting medications, beginning an IVF cycle, or performing an embryo transfer before signing is a compliance failure that can jeopardize enforceability.¹

What the Agreement Covers

C.R.S. § 19-4.5-106 requires specific provisions in the agreement. A well-drafted Colorado surrogacy agreement typically addresses the surrogate’s commitment to carry the pregnancy, the intended parents’ commitment to accept legal and financial responsibility at birth, payment of medical expenses, insurance, any compensation to the surrogate, informed consent regarding medical risks, and provisions for scenarios like multiple pregnancies or complications. Many agreements also set up a third-party escrow that holds the intended parents’ funds and releases payments at contract milestones.

How You Become the Legal Parent

This is the part most intended parents care about, and Colorado’s approach is unusually clean. If your surrogacy agreement complies with the Act, you are the child’s legal parent by operation of law the moment the baby is born. The surrogate and the surrogate’s spouse or former spouse are not parents of the child.³ No adoption proceeding is necessary.

Pre-Birth Parentage Orders

Although parentage vests automatically, most intended parents also obtain a court order confirming it. A party to the agreement can file a petition in a Colorado juvenile court before, on, or after the child’s birth.⁴ Filing during the second trimester is common because it gives the court time to review and issue the order well before the due date.

The order declares each intended parent a legal parent, declares the surrogate (and her spouse) not a parent, directs the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to list the intended parents on the birth record, and seals the court file from public inspection.⁴ If the order is issued before birth, enforcement is stayed until the baby arrives.

The Birth Certificate

With a parentage order in hand, the intended parents’ names go directly on the original birth certificate. There is no intermediate certificate listing the surrogate that later gets amended; the state registrar acts on the court’s directive.⁴

A Narrow Exception

If a clinical or lab error results in a child who is not genetically related to either intended parent or their chosen donor, the intended parents are still the legal parents. The one carve-out is a gestational arrangement where the child turns out to be genetically related to the surrogate herself; in that case, the court orders genetic testing and parentage is determined under the broader parentage statutes.³

Terminating the Agreement

Any party can walk away from a surrogacy agreement before an embryo transfer by giving written notice to all other parties. If a transfer was attempted but did not result in a pregnancy, any party can terminate before the next attempt.⁵

On termination, the parties are released from the agreement, but the intended parents remain responsible for any reimbursable expenses the surrogate incurred through the termination date. The Act also prohibits penalties or liquidated damages for terminating, unless fraud is involved.⁵ Once the surrogate is pregnant, the termination window has closed.

When an Agreement Doesn’t Comply

An agreement that follows §§ 19-4.5-104, 105, and 106 is enforceable. If a child is born under an agreement that falls short of those requirements, the court decides the parties’ rights based on their intent at the time the agreement was signed.⁶ That intent-based safety net keeps children from being left in legal limbo over a drafting defect.

Enforcement has a hard limit on bodily autonomy. A court cannot order specific performance to force a surrogate to become pregnant, continue or terminate a pregnancy, or submit to medical procedures. Specific performance is available, however, if the surrogate takes actions that prevent the intended parents from exercising their parental rights at birth, or if the intended parents refuse to accept parental duties once the child is born.⁶

What a Colorado Surrogacy Journey Costs

A full surrogacy journey in Colorado generally runs between $140,000 and $200,000 or more. The main components:

Base compensation for a first-time gestational surrogate typically falls between $45,000 and $70,000, with experienced surrogates at the higher end.
Agency administrative and matching fees, combined with other costs, put total journey expenses in the $120,000 to $180,000 range.
Attorney fees for drafting and reviewing the agreement and obtaining the parentage order typically run $5,000 to $15,000 per party.
The required medical evaluations and mental health consultations typically cost $500 to $7,000 combined, depending on the provider and testing.
If the surrogate’s existing health insurance does not cover a surrogacy pregnancy, a supplemental policy or ACA marketplace plan can add $15,000 to $30,000 or more.

Actual costs vary based on the surrogate’s location, the number of IVF cycles needed, whether donor eggs or sperm are required, and whether complications arise during pregnancy or delivery.