Looking at Liberty in the Lead, Gambling Gone Wrong, and Other Stories from This Week

Current Events
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Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

⛪ Family Council Celebrates Arkansas Being Named Number One in America on Religious Liberty. On Tuesday, First Liberty Institute’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy announced Arkansas is leading the nation in its Religious Liberty in the States index. In a statement, Family Council President Jerry Cox said, “This is something Arkansans can celebrate. First Liberty is one of our country’s leading supporters of religious freedom. Their index looks at laws and protections for religious liberty in all 50 states. If they say Arkansas is leading the nation, you can believe it.” Keep Reading.

🗽 America Flirts with Democratic Socialism. Recently, in primary elections in both New York and Colorado, self-professed Communist and Democratic Socialist candidates beat even progressive-wing candidates to claim Democratic nominations for office. Keep Reading.

🪪 Texas Lawmakers Look at Prohibiting Foreign Surrogacy Contracts, Protecting Children. 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. Keep Reading.

🪙 Polymarket Used Deceptive Social Media Ads, Fake Wins to Promote Platform: WSJ. A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal alleges that the prediction market platform Polymarket hired social media influencers to record deceptive videos appealing to young adults. Keep Reading.

📵 Most Americans Want to Keep Kids Off Social Media. Between Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms, most teens and young adults are on some form of social media. The U.S. Surgeon General says 95% of American teenagers use social media, and about one-third say they use it “almost constantly.” But parents, policymakers, and pundits have raised concerns about the harm that social media can cause to kids. Keep Reading.

💊 Doctors Allege Planned Parenthood May Be Committing Fraud to Cover Up Sex-Change Procedures. According to a report from the Washington Examiner, Planned Parenthood facilities in Pennsylvania have been using a billing code for “endocrine disorder, unspecified” when prescribing cross-sex hormones, rather than using the accurate billing code for gender identity disorder. Multiple physicians say this practice could amount to fraud. Keep Reading.

From Our Friends

Turning Children into Commodities. From World News Group.

Male Athletes Dismiss Lawsuit Challenging New Hampshire Women’s Sports Law. From Daily Citizen.

IVF Action: Clarity Sought to Safeguard Human Dignity. From The Washington Stand.

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

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Texas Lawmakers Look at Prohibiting Foreign Surrogacy Contracts, Protecting Children

Bioethics, Surrogacy, , ,

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.

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