Concerns Over Foreign Surrogacy in the U.S.

There’s a growing concern that foreign adversaries, especially China, are misusing American birthright citizenship through surrogacy. A Republican senator is proposing legislation to address this issue, aiming to criminalize the surrogacy industry for non-U.S. citizens.

Sen. Rick Scott from Florida recently introduced the Stopping Adversarial Foreign Exploitation of Kids in Domestic Surrogacy (SAFE KIDS) Act. The bill aims to prevent adversarial nations from exploiting American women to secure U.S. citizenship for their children.

“Surrogacy should not be a means for exploitation or deceit towards innocent women and babies,” Sen. Scott stated in a press release. “It’s alarming that foreign adversaries may be using it to gain U.S. citizenship for their child.”

While commercial surrogacy—often disparagingly referred to as “rent-a-womb”—is banned in countries such as Australia, France, and China, the U.S. has minimal federal regulations, with laws differing from state to state. According to The Heritage Foundation, a significant portion of the surrogacy industry is dominated by Chinese nationals. In fact, they accounted for 41.7% of foreign surrogacy cases in the U.S. in 2024, with France trailing at 9.2%.

Emma Waters, a policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, remarked that U.S. laws effectively make the country a hub for outsourced pregnancies, allowing wealthy foreigners not only to have children but also to gain U.S. citizenship.

Foreigners reportedly pay American women over $60,000 to carry their child and give birth in the U.S., which grants the child birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Once the child turns 21, they have the opportunity to petition for their parents and family to obtain American visas.

There’s a growing skepticism among conservatives about the Supreme Court’s 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which upheld that the 14th Amendment grants birthright citizenship. When former President Donald Trump took office, he signed an executive order challenging this notion, suggesting that only children whose biological parents are U.S. citizens should automatically receive citizenship.

However, the executive order didn’t specifically address foreign surrogacy cases.

Waters expressed satisfaction at Sen. Scott’s principled stand against foreign nationals from adversarial countries purchasing babies from American surrogate mothers.

The SAFE KIDS Act is designed to fill the gap in federal laws regarding foreign surrogacy in the U.S.

In the press release, Scott pointed out that international commercial surrogacy poses serious national security and human trafficking risks. He also indicated that the new legislation would invalidate any surrogacy contract with citizens from adversarial nations and would criminalize the brokers involved, not the women carrying the child.

“A national ban on foreign-national commercial surrogacy is crucial for protecting American sovereignty, security, and human dignity,” Waters commented. “Until Congress takes action, the U.S. will continue to be the primary destination for reproductive tourism, leaving American women and law exposed to exploitation.”