What happens to legal parentage if the intended parents divorce after the child is born via surrogacy?

Once legal parentage has been established after a surrogacy birth — whether through the automatic route or a court declaration of parentage — it does not change simply because the intended parents later divorce or separate. Parentage and the parent-child relationship are treated as permanent legal facts, distinct from the adult relationship between the parents; a divorce ends the marriage, but both parents remain the child's legal parents just as they would if the child had been conceived without assisted reproduction.

What does change on separation or divorce is how the parents share decision-making responsibility and parenting time going forward, which is worked out the same way as for any separating parents — through agreement or, if needed, a court order applying the best-interests-of-the-child test. The surrogacy origin of the child doesn't give either parent a stronger or weaker claim in that process. Parents who conceived through surrogacy and are now separating should approach parenting arrangements the same way any other parents would.