Texas Lawmakers Look at Prohibiting Foreign Surrogacy Contracts, Protecting Children

Last week, lawmakers in Texas reportedly looked at the possibility of prohibiting commercial surrogacy contracts with foreign nationals.

In commercial surrogacy contacts, corporate agencies hire women to carry children for paying customers. But recent news stories and congressional testimony have highlighted how some of these paying customers may actually be from foreign countries. Because the children are born on U.S. soil, they are American citizens, but they may be immediately taken from the U.S. to be raised in China or another country. As a result, policymakers have begun voicing serious concerns about this issue.

The Texas Senate reportedly is among those looking at how to address surrogacy contracts involving people in other countries.

Last Wednesday, the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee met to examine “the unethical and foreign interests exploiting the surrogacy and fertility industries in Texas” as well as “recommendations to end this exploitation and related harm to patients and children.” If Texas moves forward with legislation, it could prohibit foreign nationals from paying surrogates in Texas to have children.

In June, the Republican Party of Texas added the issue to its platform, writing:

“Child First Conception Act: We support a ban on contract surrogacy involving foreign nationals, which may involve a form of trafficking and may lead to claims of citizenship. We also support prohibiting third-party egg and sperm donations and the commercialization of human reproduction in Texas; and support policies that promote the welfare of children, medical transparency, and the protection of biological parents.”

Arkansas U.S. Senator Tom Cotton and Florida U.S. Senator Rick Scott recently urged the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate surrogacy centers operated by foreign nationals.

In a letter to the U.S. Attorney General, both senators wrote,

“Recent reports have uncovered more than 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies operating in Southern California alone. These agencies cater almost exclusively to wealthy Chinese clients, and some are affiliated with Chinese state-owned entities. Chinese nationals pay women living in the United States more than $50,000 to serve as surrogates. The children are born on United States soil and granted automatic citizenship. And in most cases, the infants are promptly flown to China and raised there under the direct influence of the Chinese Communist Party.”

We have written many times about how commercial surrogacy is a largely unregulated industry that exploits women and hurts children.

Unlike many other countries, the United States has relatively few restrictions on surrogacy. That is a serious problem.

Surrogacy is bad enough when it goes wrong, but does surrogacy ever “go right”?

Social commentators and policymakers worldwide have pointed out how commercial surrogacy financially pressures women.

It treats pregnancy like a “service” in which women can be “hired” or “fired” as surrogates.

It deliberately deprives children of their biological mothers or fathers.

And it treats children like products that can be made to order and sold for profit.

Our laws must put children first. People aren’t products. That’s part of the reason Family Council has opposed commercial surrogacy in Arkansas.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.