Preventing International Surrogacy Exploitation Act

Proponents argue this bill protects U.S. national security by preventing foreign nationals—especially from adversarial countries like China—from obtaining U.S. citizen children who could later vote, access sensitive government positions, or sponsor parents for immigration. They cite unrestricted international surrogacy as a vector for foreign influence and assert that many other developed democracies have banned the practice. Critics would likely argue the bill violates constitutional liberty interests of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to enter into private reproductive contracts; constitutes sex-based discrimination by regulating only women's reproductive labor; imposes criminal penalties on medical professionals and brokers for facilitating reproductive choices; and creates legal limbo for children already born under such agreements. Non-partisan evidence on the scale of the security threat is limited; the bill cites examples of surrogacy-related concerns but does not cite documented cases of foreign national parents using U.S. citizenship of surrogacy-born children to conduct espionage or infiltrate government.