Republican Senator Has a Plan to Stop Foreigners from Abusing Surrogacy for US Citizenship Purposes 

China and other foreign adversaries are abusing American birthright citizenship to have American children through surrogacy. But one Republican Senator has a plan to criminalize the growing surrogacy industry for foreigners. 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., recently introduced a bill called the Stopping Adversarial Foreign Exploitation of Kids in Domestic Surrogacy (SAFE KIDS) Act that would prevent adversarial nations, specifically China, from using and taking advantage of American women to obtain U.S. citizenship for their child.  

“[Surrogacy] should never be the avenue to allow abuse, neglect, or deceit of innocent women and babies,” Sen. Rick Scott said in a press release. “And it’s terrifying that this might be at the hands of foreign adversaries with the sole intent of having a child that is a U.S. citizen.” 

While commercial surrogacy (called rent-a-womb by its critics is banned in Australia, France, and China, the U.S. has limited federal restrictions and laws vary widely by state. According to The Heritage Foundation the industry is disproportionately fueled by Chinese nationals. In 2024, China was responsible for 41.7% of foreign surrogacy in the United States, with second place France at 9.2%. 

“American law has effectively turned the U.S. into a sanctuary for outsourced pregnancy, providing wealthy foreigners with a clear path not only to a child, but to U.S. citizenship,” Emma Waters, a policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.  

Foreigners often pay American women upward of $60,000 to carry their child and give birth in the United States, which gives the child birthright citizenship under the 14^th amendment in the U.S. Constitution. By the time the child is 21 they can then petition for the parents and family to receive American visas.  

Conservatives are increasingly questioning the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1898 case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark that affirmed the 14^th Amendment grants birthright citizenship. When President Donald Trump took office this January, he signed an Executive Order challenging birthright citizenship. The order argued that to be granted American citizenship, a child’s biological mother or father must be a citizen. 

The executive order, however, does not mention cases of foreign surrogacy.  

Watters said she is “thrilled to see Sen. Rick Scott take a firm and principled stand against foreign nationals of adversarial nations buying babies from U.S. surrogate-mothers.”  

The SAFE KIDS Act addresses the lack of strong federal laws regulating foreign surrogacy in the U.S.  

Scott said in the press release that “international commercial surrogacy raises serious national-security and human trafficking concerns.” He also noted that the new legislation will invalidate any surrogacy agreement with a citizen of a foreign adversarial nation and criminalize the surrogacy brokers—not the women carrying the child.  

“A national ban on foreign-national commercial surrogacy is a matter of protecting American’s sovereignty, security, and human dignity,” Waters told The Daily Signal. “Until Congress acts, the U.S. will remain the world’s primary destination for reproductive tourism, leaving American women, American law, and American citizenship vulnerable to exploitation by those who can afford to buy access.” 

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