IVF clinics face stricter standards, threat of bans following embryo bungles

Victorian IVF clinics will face greater scrutiny under beefed-up laws aimed at better protecting fertility patients following a series of scandals in the industry, including embryos being transferred to the wrong women.

On Tuesday, the state government will introduce legislation to overhaul Victoria’s assisted reproductive technology (ART) safeguards, including greater powers to immediately cancel an IVF clinic’s registration or for their premises to be inspected and documents seized.

The action comes after Monash IVF last year admitted two horror mix-ups in which women were implanted with the wrong embryos, including a Brisbane patient who discovered she’d given birth to a stranger’s baby.

Last June, amid further revelations Victorian fertility clinics were vastly underreporting the true rates of dangerous complications, and a $56 million class action over a Monash IVF bungled genetic testing program, the federal and state governments ordered a rapid review into the troubled sector.

In response to findings from that Victorian-led review, the Allan government will introduce legislation to state parliament to amend the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 and hand stronger powers to the Victorian Department of Health.

The revamped laws will require the state’s 24 licensed ART clinics to meet stricter standards to maintain their accreditation, including performance metrics, workforce guidance and safety requirements for new technologies.

The laws will provide the department, which oversees the sector via the Victorian Health Regulator, powers to enter a provider’s premises, inspect and seize equipment and documents. They will also hand the health minister discretion to cancel a provider’s registration in extreme cases.

“Victorian families deserve to have confidence that their IVF provider is held to the highest standards, and that the fertility care they are getting is subject to rigorous oversight,” Health Minister Harriet Shing said.

“This reform will require providers to meet strict new rules to maintain their accreditation, and will sit alongside the Commonwealth’s work to fix inconsistencies between states.”

The Victorian regulator last year renewed Monash IVF’s licence to operate fertility clinics soon after revelations in February 2025 that a bungled embryo transfer in Brisbane resulted in a woman giving birth to a stranger’s baby, followed by another wrong-embryo transfer at its Clayton clinic in June 2025.

This masthead also revealed long-held concerns that IVF clinics were failing to disclose dangerous complications to regulators. A