This Act voids surrogacy agreements between U.S. surrogates and foreign national prospective parents and penalizes brokers who facilitate them to prevent exploitation and national security risks.
Scott Perry
Representative
PA-10
This Act invalidates surrogacy agreements between foreign national prospective parents and U.S. surrogate mothers, voiding such contracts. It imposes criminal penalties on surrogacy brokers who facilitate these arrangements for foreign nationals. Furthermore, the bill limits the ability of foreign national parents to gain immigration benefits through a child born under these voided agreements.
New International Surrogacy Ban Voids Contracts for Foreign Nationals and Imposes 10-Year Prison Sentences for Brokers
A new piece of legislation, the Preventing International Surrogacy Exploitation Act, aims to shut down the 'birth tourism' industry by making surrogacy contracts involving foreign nationals legally void in the United States. Under Section 4, any agreement where the intended parents are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents is considered unenforceable if the surrogate is in the U.S. at the time of birth. The only exception is for married couples where at least one spouse is a U.S. citizen or green card holder. This isn't just a slap on the wrist for those involved; Section 5 turns the commercial facilitation of these deals into a federal crime, with 'surrogacy brokers' facing up to 10 years in prison and heavy fines for helping arrange these now-illegal contracts.
The National Security Angle
The bill’s logic is rooted in national security and the automatic citizenship granted by the 14th Amendment. According to the findings in Section 2, the government is concerned that children born through these arrangements—who are U.S. citizens from birth—could eventually hold sensitive government jobs or vote in elections while being raised abroad by parents from 'adversarial countries.' The bill specifically calls out the presence of over 100 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies in Southern California as a primary driver for these new restrictions. By cutting off the legal enforceability of these contracts, the bill seeks to stop foreign nationals from using the U.S. legal system to facilitate what it describes as a security risk.
Custody Chaos and Legal Limbo
If you’re wondering what happens to a baby when a contract is suddenly declared void, Section 6 provides a complex answer: it’s up to a state judge. Instead of following the original surrogacy agreement, a court will decide custody based solely on the 'best interests of the child' under local state law. This creates a massive legal headache for everyone involved. For example, a surrogate mother who intended to hand over the child might find herself in a protracted custody battle, or a foreign couple who spent thousands on medical fees could lose all legal standing to the child they intended to raise. Because the bill explicitly says the voided contract must be 'completely ignored' in court, years of planning and financial investment could vanish the moment a dispute reaches a judge.
Immigration Roadblocks
The bill also closes the door on parents hoping to use their child’s citizenship as a future ticket to the U.S. Section 7 explicitly prohibits foreign national parents from receiving any immigration benefits—like a green card or visa sponsorship—based on their relationship to a child born under a voided surrogacy agreement. This means even when that child turns 21 and would normally be able to sponsor their parents for a visa, the law would block it permanently. For international families or even mixed-status couples who don't meet the specific marriage requirements in the bill, this legislation turns a path to parenthood into a potential legal and criminal minefield.