Surrogacy in Alabama: The Complete 2026 Guide

Alabama has no gestational surrogacy statute — its Uniform Parentage Act adopts the uniform act and then leaves the gestational-agreement article reserved at § 26-17-801. But it is not a quiet silent state, and three things make it unusual.

• ⭐ The adoption code carves surrogacy out — twice. § 26-10E-32 (unlawful placement) and § 26-10E-33(c) (payments to a parent) each end with the same sentence: "Surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered by this section."
• ⛔ A 2024 Supreme Court decision about embryos. LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, decided 16 February 2024, held that "unborn children are 'children'" under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, "without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics" — including embryos stored outside the body.
• ⭐ A statute passed weeks later. Act 2024-20, codified at § 6-5-810 and § 6-5-811, bars "any action, suit, or criminal prosecution for the damage to or death of an embryo" against anyone "providing or receiving services related to in vitro fertilization," and applies retroactively.

⚠️ What none of that gives you is a surrogacy-specific parentage procedure. There is no validation rule, no automatic-parentage rule, and no Alabama decision construing a gestational carrier arrangement.

⭐ But there is a route, and the state describes it. Alabama's general parentage article authorizes a civil proceeding to adjudicate parentage (§ 26-17-601), lets maternity be established by adjudication (§ 26-17-201), and provides that a proceeding may be commenced before birth but may not be concluded until after birth (§ 26-17-611). ⚠️ A final pre-birth order is therefore not available — the final order comes after delivery. The Alabama Center for Health Statistics runs a published surrogate-birth process built on exactly that order.

Alabama is workable in the sense that nothing prohibits it, the payment path is unusually clear, and the state has an established birth-record process — and unsettled in the sense that no Alabama appellate decision has tested how a carrier case runs through the general parentage article. Both halves belong in the same conversation with Alabama counsel.

Alabama has no gestational surrogacy statute and no surrogacy case law. Four bodies of law shape the position.

The gap: Article 8 is reserved

Alabama enacted the Uniform Parentage Act as Act 2008-376, ch. 26-17. In the uniform act, Article 8 is Gestational Agreements. Alabama took the act and left that article as a single placeholder:

"§ 26-17-801. Reserved."

⭐ § 26-17-802 does not exist. So Alabama has no validation procedure, no enforceability rule, no eligibility conditions and no parentage-order mechanism for a gestational agreement.

§ 26-17-106, in full: "Provisions of this chapter relating to determinations of paternity apply to determinations of maternity."

What Alabama does have: the general parentage article

⭐ Article 8 being reserved does not mean Alabama courts cannot adjudicate parentage. Article 6 of the same chapter supplies the general machinery:

• § 26-17-201(a): the mother-child relationship may be established by "(1) the woman's having given birth to the child; (2) an adjudication of the woman's maternity; or (3) adoption."
• § 26-17-601(a): "A civil proceeding may be maintained to adjudicate the parentage of a child."
• § 26-17-602: standing extends to, among others, "(7) any interested person."
• § 26-17-611: "A proceeding to determine parentage may be commenced before the birth of the child, but may not be concluded until after the birth of the child."
• § 26-17-636(a): the court "shall issue an order adjudicating" parentage.

⚠️ Two consequences follow. First, a final pre-birth order is not available in Alabama — § 26-17-611 forbids concluding the proceeding before birth. Second, the negative framing common in secondary sources is wrong: Alabama is not a state without any parentage mechanism. ⛔ What remains genuinely unsettled is how a gestational carrier case runs through Article 6, because no Alabama appellate decision has construed one.

And the state's own surrogate-birth process

⭐ The Alabama Center for Health Statistics publishes a surrogate-birth procedure and runs a Parentage Unit. On receipt of an original, final court order determining the child's legal parentage, it prepares a new birth certificate naming the legal parent or parents. The order may be faxed by hospital staff or the attorney for approval, and must contain eight items:

the approximate date and place of delivery; the name and sex of the child, if known; the name of the surrogate mother, her marital status, and if married, the name of her spouse; renouncement or termination of parental rights of the surrogate mother and her spouse, if married; the full current legal names of the legally established parents and their names before first marriage; their dates and places of birth; their place of residence; and court instruction that their names are to be placed on the birth certificate.

⚠️ This is an administrative process, not a statute — it does not tell you which court, which cause of action, or what standard applies. But it does establish that surrogate births are a recognized category in Alabama vital records, and that a final parentage order is the expected instrument. The page also directs questions about the surrogacy court order before the child's birth to a specific number, which is consistent with orders being sought in advance of delivery.

The carve-out: the adoption code says surrogacy is not covered

⚠️ Read this against a trap. Alabama's old adoption code, ch. 26-10A, was repealed by Act 2023-92 and replaced by ch. 26-10E, the Alabama Minor Adoption Code. Sources still citing § 26-10A-34(c) are citing repealed law. ⭐ The exclusion survived the replacement — and now appears twice.

§ 26-10E-32 restricts who may place or facilitate the placement of a minor for adoption, with a Class A misdemeanor on first conviction and a Class C felony thereafter. Its final sentence: "Surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered by this section."

§ 26-10E-33 makes it a Class A misdemeanor to offer, and a Class C felony to pay, money to a parent for placement or consent; (b) makes receiving money for placing or arranging a placement a Class C felony. (c), in full: "Surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered by this section."

⛔ But note what is not there. § 26-10E-22 — which provides that "no individual, organization, group, agency, or any legal entity may accept any fee whatsoever for bringing any petitioner together with the adoptee or the parents of the adoptee," a Class A misdemeanor rising to a Class C felony — contains no such sentence.

⚠️ Do not resolve that either way from the text. Three readings are available: that § 26-10E-22 is an adoption-fee rule which never engages because a gestational carrier arrangement is not an adoption; that the legislature knew how to exclude surrogacy and its silence here is meaningful; or that § 26-10E-33(a) cross-references § 26-10E-22, so the two travel together. Only Alabama counsel can answer it, and it should be asked before matching.

Donors

§ 26-17-702: "A donor who donates to a licensed physician for use by a married woman is not a parent of a child conceived by means of assisted reproduction. A married couple who, under the supervision of a licensed physician, engage in assisted reproduction through use of donated eggs, sperm, or both, will be treated at law as if they are the sole natural and legal parents."

⭐ Broader than many donor provisions — it reaches donated eggs and assisted reproduction generally, not just artificial insemination. ⚠️ But the first sentence is written around a married woman and the second around a married couple, and neither mentions a gestational carrier. Unmarried intended parents are outside its text, and the provision does not explain how it interacts with a carrier arrangement. Your family structure, the genetic connections, and the court hearing the case all change the analysis, so donor status should be worked through together with the parentage filing rather than relied on alone.

Embryos: LePage, and the statute that answered it

LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C., SC-2022-0515 and SC-2022-0579, decided 16 February 2024. A patient entered the fertility center's cryogenic nursery and destroyed several stored embryos; the parents sued under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, § 6-5-391. The trial court dismissed on the ground that embryos are not a "child."

The Supreme Court reversed, holding:

"neither the text of the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act nor this Court's precedents exclude extrauterine children from the Act's coverage. Unborn children are 'children' under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics."

⚠️ It is a wrongful-death decision about embryos destroyed by a third party. It says nothing about surrogacy, parentage, or the enforceability of any agreement.

The Legislature responded with Act 2024-20, codified as Article 41 of ch. 6-5:

§ 6-5-810(a): "Related to in vitro fertilization and notwithstanding any provision of law … no action, suit, or criminal prosecution for the damage to or death of an embryo shall be brought or maintained against any individual or entity when providing or receiving services related to in vitro fertilization." (b) applies retroactively to any act, omission, or course of services which are not the subject of litigation on 6 March 2024.

§ 6-5-811 limits damages against manufacturers of goods used in IVF or embryo transport to "the price paid for the impacted in vitro cycle," bars criminal prosecution of them, and is "remedial in nature and … retroactive."

⚠️ Two cautions. The immunity is written around IVF services, not around surrogacy or parentage — it protects the clinic and the patient from embryo-loss claims, and does nothing else. And ⛔ the codified text contains no "intentional acts" exception, despite widespread reporting to the contrary.

Case law on surrogacy

We located no published Alabama appellate decision construing a gestational carrier arrangement, the § 26-10E carve-outs, or Article 6's application to a carrier. ⚠️ That is not the same as saying Alabama courts have entered no such orders — the vital-records process above presupposes that they do. It means the appellate rules are unwritten.

General information, not legal advice. Alabama has no gestational surrogacy statute and no case law on one; a licensed Alabama attorney should confirm the parentage route and the § 26-10E-22 question before you match.

⭐ Two Article 1 provisions this page previously missed

§ 26-17-103(d), verbatim:

"This chapter does not authorize or prohibit an agreement between a woman and intended parents in which the woman relinquishes all rights as a parent of a child conceived by means of assisted reproduction, and which provides that the intended parents become the parents of the child. If a birth results under such an agreement and the agreement is unenforceable under Alabama law, the parent-child relationship is determined as provided in Article 2."

⚠️ So Alabama's UPA is not silent about surrogacy agreements — it declines to authorize or prohibit them, and it supplies a fallback. If the agreement fails, parentage falls back to Article 2's ordinary rules, which begin with birth and the marital presumption.

⛔ The married carrier's husband is a presumed father

§ 26-17-204(a)(1): a man is presumed to be the father if "he and the mother of the child are married to each other and the child is born during the marriage."

⭐ This is why the Center for Health Statistics requires the order to address the surrogate's spouse. In Ex parte Sessions, SC-2024-0222 (Ala. 23 January 2026), the Supreme Court said the "marital presumption will always control in a situation like the present one," resting on § 26-17-204(b)'s "weightier considerations of public policy and logic." ⚠️ Sessions was an ordinary paternity dispute, not an assisted-reproduction or carrier case, and it does not decide how the presumption applies to a consenting carrier's spouse. But if your carrier is married, her husband starts as a presumed father and the parentage plan has to deal with him.

⚠️ Alabama has no gestational surrogacy statute, but its Uniform Parentage Act does define the terms — and the definition carries a marital condition. § 26-17-102(12): "'Intended parents' means husbands and wives who enter into an agreement providing that they will be the parents of a child born to a gestational mother by means of assisted reproduction, whether or not either of them has a genetic relationship with the child." ⛔ Unmarried and unpartnered intended parents are outside that definition, and no Alabama decision says what follows from that. Ask counsel about it before matching. No age, residency or citizenship condition appears anywhere.

⭐ The payment path is unusually clear for a state with no statute. Both of the adoption code's criminal provisions that carry an express surrogacy exclusion — § 26-10E-32 on placement and facilitation, and § 26-10E-33 on payments to a parent — end with "Surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered by this section."

⚠️ But one adoption section has no such sentence, and it is the fee provision: § 26-10E-22 bars accepting "any fee whatsoever for bringing any petitioner together with the adoptee or the parents of the adoptee." Whether that reaches a surrogacy arrangement is unresolved on the text and no Alabama court has addressed it. Ask your Alabama attorney about it specifically, before matching.

⭐ The parentage route runs through Alabama's general parentage article, and it ends after birth. § 26-17-601 authorizes a civil proceeding to adjudicate parentage; § 26-17-201(a)(2) allows maternity to be established by adjudication; § 26-17-106 applies the paternity provisions to maternity; and § 26-17-611 provides that a proceeding may be commenced before the birth of the child, but may not be concluded until after the birth. ⚠️ A final pre-birth order is therefore not available in Alabama. Plan for a final order after delivery.

⭐ The state publishes what that order must contain. The Alabama Center for Health Statistics's surrogate-birth page requires an original, final court order determining the child's legal parentage, and lists eight required items — including the surrogate's marital status and spouse, renouncement or termination of their parental rights, and a direction that your names be placed on the certificate. ⚠️ No Alabama appellate decision has construed how a carrier case runs through the general parentage article, so the filing theory is still your attorney's to build. Have it in writing before transfer.

⚠️ If you are using donor eggs or donor sperm, read § 26-17-702 closely. It treats a donor as not a parent and a married couple using donated gametes as "the sole natural and legal parents" — but the first sentence is written around a married woman and the second around a married couple, and neither mentions a gestational carrier. Unmarried intended parents are outside its text, and the provision does not explain how it interacts with a carrier. Work donor status through together with the parentage filing rather than relying on this section alone.

⭐ On embryos, Alabama is now more settled than the headlines suggest. LePage held that stored embryos are "children" under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act — and within weeks Act 2024-20 barred "any action, suit, or criminal prosecution for the damage to or death of an embryo" against anyone providing or receiving IVF services, retroactively. ⚠️ That immunity protects clinics and patients from embryo-loss claims; it does not create a parentage route.

Start with intended parents, or contact us.

An Alabama journey costs about what one costs anywhere in the Southeast. The state's law does not change the total — it changes how much of the legal work is bespoke.

Typical all-in ranges for an Ivy journey:

• Surrogacy only, embryos already created: $140,000–$150,000
• With IVF: $180,000–$190,000
• With IVF and egg donation: $210,000–$220,000+

Those cover agency fees, her compensation and allowances, legal work for both sides, escrow administration, screening, insurance review, and the legal work needed to carry out your attorney's parentage and birth-record plan. They do not cover an unusual medical course.

⚠️ Budget for more attorney time than a statutory state needs. Alabama supplies no gestational agreement statute, so counsel works from the general parentage article rather than a surrogacy-specific one, and there is no published Alabama appellate decision to price the risk against. ⚠️ Court work is part of the budget here — the final parentage order is what the state's birth-record process runs on.

⭐ The payment question is clearer here than in most silent states. The adoption code's placement and payment provisions — §§ 26-10E-32 and 26-10E-33 — each say that surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered. ⚠️ That is an exclusion, not an authorization, and § 26-10E-22's fee prohibition carries no such sentence. Have counsel address § 26-10E-22 in writing before funds move.

No statutory cap, and no escrow rule — Alabama has no surrogacy-specific compensation statute at all, and we located no Alabama decision on the point. Ivy uses an independently administered escrow account regardless. Ask any agency here how funds are held, and get it in writing.

Vital records fees are published, and the surrogate-birth fee is its own line. Preparing the new certificate after a court-ordered action costs $25.00, including one certified copy; $6.00 for each additional copy ordered at the same time; $15.00 to expedite. ⚠️ Fees are not refundable, and a surrogate-birth certificate cannot be ordered online.

Contact us for a written breakdown against your own circumstances.

An Alabama journey follows the standard gestational path. What is specific to Alabama is that the parentage step has no statutory shape, so it has to be planned rather than followed.

1. Application and matching. Application, records review, a call, then profiles and a decision.
2. ⛔ Legal strategy, unusually early. Both sides retain independent Alabama counsel, and the parentage route is settled before anything medical begins. ⚠️ No Alabama statute requires a written agreement, pre-transfer execution or independent counsel. Ivy requires all three — and here the agreement carries more than usual, because the state supplies no terms.
3. ⛔ Ask counsel the § 26-10E-22 question in writing. The adoption code's placement and payment sections say surrogacy is not covered; its fee section does not say so. Get your attorney's position on it before money moves.
4. Screening. Clinic clearance and a psychological consultation for both sides — the clinic's protocol and Ivy's, not a statutory rule.
5. Escrow funded. Alabama does not require it. Ivy requires an independently administered escrow account, funded before medications begin, with the escrow agent disbursing monthly from confirmation of fetal heartbeat.
6. Transfer, heartbeat scan, prenatal care, with handoff to her local OB around 8–10 weeks. Delivery is normally near her home.
7. ⚠️ Parentage — the final order comes after birth. § 26-17-611 lets a parentage proceeding be commenced before birth but not concluded until after, so counsel typically files ahead of delivery and takes the final order afterward. No Alabama appellate decision has construed a carrier case under the general parentage article — have your attorney's filing theory in writing before transfer.
8. The birth record — a published state process. The Alabama Center for Health Statistics's Parentage Unit prepares a new certificate on receipt of the original, final parentage order, which the hospital or your attorney may fax for approval. ⛔ The order must contain eight specified items, including the surrogate's marital status and spouse, renouncement or termination of their parental rights, and a direction that your names be placed on the certificate. Preparing the new certificate costs $25.00 including one certified copy, $6.00 per additional copy ordered at the same time, and $15.00 to expedite. ⚠️ Fees are not refundable, this cannot be done online, and Alabama birth records are confidential with restricted access for 125 years.

Apply as a surrogate or read the intended parents overview.

Alabama has no gestational surrogacy statute, so almost every journey-specific protection has to come from your contract. Two things in Alabama law are worth knowing before you sign.

What Alabama law gives you:

• ⭐ The adoption code's criminal provisions expressly do not cover you. § 26-10E-32 and § 26-10E-33(c) each end: "Surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered by this section." § 26-10E-33 is the section that makes receiving money in an adoption a felony — and it says it is not aimed at you.
• ⭐ The 2024 IVF immunity statute is written broadly enough to reach you. § 6-5-810(a) bars "any action, suit, or criminal prosecution for the damage to or death of an embryo" against anyone "providing or receiving services related to in vitro fertilization." ⚠️ On the text a carrier receiving IVF services is within that wording, but no Alabama decision has applied it to a carrier or defined how far the service context extends.

What it does not give you, and your contract must:

• ⚠️ No surrogacy-specific parentage procedure, and no final pre-birth order. Alabama's general parentage article does supply a route — a proceeding may be commenced before birth but cannot be concluded until after, and the state's surrogate-birth process is built on that final order. ⛔ That order is expected to address your parental rights, and your spouse's if you are married. Ask an Alabama attorney — not an agency — exactly what it will say about you, and when it is entered.
• ⚠️ No surrogacy statute allocates medical decision-making, and none requires escrow, insurance, or that the intended parents pay for your attorney. Ivy pays for a surrogate's independent counsel as a matter of practice, not because Alabama requires it.
• ⚠️ No compensation provision. The statute is silent; the adoption carve-outs say the criminal payment sections do not reach surrogacy, but that is an exclusion, not an authorization.

⚠️ One open question your own attorney should answer. § 26-10E-22 bars accepting a fee for bringing parties together in an adoption and, unlike §§ 32 and 33, carries no surrogacy carve-out. Whether it reaches a surrogacy arrangement is unresolved.

Ready when you are — apply here or read the compensation overview.

No Alabama statute sets requirements for a surrogate. There is no gestational surrogacy statute, so no minimum age, prior-birth rule, evaluation requirement or residency condition comes from one. Everything below comes from Ivy and the IVF clinic.

What Ivy asks:

• 20–36 years old at application
• At least one healthy full-term pregnancy, and currently raising that child
• BMI 32 or under
• No more than 2 C-sections and no more than 5 total deliveries — these are Ivy and IVF clinic screening criteria, not Alabama law
• No smoking, vaping or THC for 6+ months, clinic-verified
• Financially stable and not receiving public assistance
• U.S. citizen or permanent resident, with a stable living situation

You may apply as early as 3 months postpartum after a vaginal delivery; recovery from a C-section takes longer.

What the clinic adds. A medical evaluation, records review and clearance from the treating IVF clinic, plus a psychological consultation. With no statutory screening rules, the clinic's protocol is the standard.

⭐ One Alabama statute is written broadly enough to reach you directly. § 6-5-810(a) bars any action, suit or criminal prosecution for damage to or death of an embryo against anyone "providing or receiving services related to in vitro fertilization." ⚠️ On the text a carrier receiving IVF services is within that wording, though no Alabama decision has applied it to a carrier.

⚠️ And the part to ask about before you sign. Alabama has no surrogacy-specific parentage procedure and no final pre-birth order — the general parentage article lets a case start before birth but requires it to conclude after (§ 26-17-611). The state's surrogate-birth process expects a final order addressing your parental rights and your spouse's, if you are married. ⛔ Ask exactly what that order will say about you and when it is entered — and make sure the answer is in the agreement.

⚠️ Expect to travel for the transfer. Intended parents usually keep the clinic holding their embryos, so monitoring near home and traveling for the transfer is common. Ivy covers travel for appointments.

Not sure whether you qualify? The application takes about ten minutes and we will tell you honestly.

Base compensation for a first-time Ivy surrogate is $40,000. A second journey is $45,000–$50,000; a third or more is $55,000–$60,000, open to discussion beyond that for a proven surrogate.

With allowances and milestones, a full package generally runs $50,000–$100,000+ — a monthly allowance, maternity clothing, travel and childcare for appointments, lost wages where they apply, and milestone payments. Your package is written into the agreement before you sign.

⭐ Alabama's criminal payment provisions say they do not reach you. § 26-10E-33 makes it a Class C felony to pay a parent for placement or consent, and (b) a Class C felony to receive money for arranging a placement — and (c) ends: "Surrogate motherhood is not intended to be covered by this section." § 26-10E-32 carries the same sentence.

⚠️ That is an exclusion, not an authorization, and it is worth saying plainly: Alabama has no surrogacy-specific compensation statute, no statutory cap, and no decision on the point. The carve-outs tell you what the adoption code is not aimed at; they do not create a rule for what a surrogacy package may contain.

⛔ And one section has no carve-out. § 26-10E-22 bars accepting "any fee whatsoever for bringing any petitioner together with the adoptee or the parents of the adoptee." Whether that reaches a surrogacy arrangement is unresolved, and it is a question for your own attorney — the one the intended parents should be paying for.

⚠️ Nothing in Alabama law governs how your money is held. Several states require compensation to sit with an independent escrow agent before medications begin; Alabama does not. Ivy requires an independently administered escrow account funded beforehand, and disburses monthly from confirmation of fetal heartbeat. Make the escrow terms explicit, and have your attorney confirm them.

⚠️ Two more gaps your agreement must fill: we located no Alabama statute requiring the intended parents to carry or pay for your health coverage, and none addressing complications or postpartum care.

Full detail on how payments are structured is on the compensation page.

We verified each entry against its own website on 19 August 2026 rather than from a directory:

• Alabama Fertility — Birmingham. Its own site confirms a fertility practice offering in vitro fertilization.
• UAB Medicine Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility — its own site confirms in vitro fertilization, at the UAB Women & Infants Center and UAB Medicine Hoover.
• Center for Reproductive Medicine — Mobile, with a Daphne office. Its own site confirms a fertility practice offering in vitro fertilization.

⚠️ No Alabama practice confirmed a gestational carrier service line on its own site, so none is claimed here. Ask any practice directly which parts of a carrier cycle it performs, and whether it takes carrier cycles at all.

⭐ One thing changed for Alabama clinics in 2024, and it is worth knowing. After LePage held that stored embryos are "children" under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, Act 2024-20, codified at § 6-5-810, barred "any action, suit, or criminal prosecution for the damage to or death of an embryo" against anyone providing or receiving IVF services, retroactively. ⚠️ That immunity is about embryo-loss liability — it does not address parentage, and it is worth asking any practice directly how it handles embryo storage and transport now.

These listings are informational, not endorsements, and not a complete list. Intended parents normally stay with the clinic holding their embryos, and in Ivy journeys generally those embryos are often shipped in from another state or from outside the US; the surrogate travels for the transfer and then receives prenatal care near home. If you already have a clinic, keep it.

Statutes: Ala. Code § 26-17-801 — the Uniform Parentage Act's gestational-agreement article, Reserved. General parentage: § 26-17-201 (maternity by adjudication), § 26-17-601 (civil proceeding), § 26-17-611 (commenced before birth, concluded after), § 26-17-636 (order adjudicating parentage). § 26-17-106 (paternity provisions apply to maternity). § 26-17-702 (donors; married woman / married couple). Adoption code carve-outs: § 26-10E-32 and § 26-10E-33(c). ⛔ No carve-out in § 26-10E-22. ⚠️ Ch. 26-10A was repealed by Act 2023-92 — sources citing § 26-10A-34(c) are out of date.

IVF immunity: Act 2024-20, codified at § 6-5-810 and § 6-5-811. ⚠️ The act number widely reported as "2024-24" is wrong; the code says 2024-20.

Case law: LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C., SC-2022-0515, SC-2022-0579, decided 16 February 2024 — unborn children, including extrauterine embryos, are "children" under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. ⚠️ No Alabama decision addresses surrogacy, gestational agreements or a carrier's parentage.

Birth certificates after a surrogate birth: Alabama Center for Health Statistics — Certificates for Surrogate Birth. Requires an original, final court order determining legal parentage with eight specified contents; may be faxed by the hospital or the attorney for approval. $25.00 to prepare the new certificate including one certified copy; $6.00 each additional copy ordered at the same time; $15.00 to expedite. ⚠️ Fees are not refundable and this cannot be done online. General birth-certificate fees are separate ($15.00 search). Records are confidential with restricted access for 125 years.

For Chinese intended parents: on the Chinese Embassy's official consular-district table, Alabama sits in the Houston consular district — ⚠️ but that table records the Houston consulate's work as "taken over by the Chinese Embassy." Confirm current document and appointment requirements with the Embassy before making travel plans.

Ivy: surrogate application · intended parents · compensation · contact us. Nearby: Georgia · Tennessee · Florida.