Sponsors (21)
The bill strengthens protections against exploitative cross-border commercial surrogacy and clarifies parentage for certain U.S. parents, but it creates significant legal, economic, and equality risks — especially for children, immigrants, surrogate mothers, and non‑traditional families — by voiding many international arrangements and criminalizing brokers.
Surrogate mothers in the U.S. (especially low-income women) are more protected from exploitative international commercial surrogacy and coercive contract enforcement, because the bill voids certain cross-border surrogacy agreements and removes enforceability of coercive terms.
U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident intended parents (in covered domestic situations) gain clearer legal parentage and reduced uncertainty through statutory definitions (e.g., 'prospective parent') and explicit enforceability rules for certain domestic surrogacy agreements.
Brokers who arrange void or exploitative international surrogacy agreements face criminal penalties, which could deter fraudulent or abusive intermediaries and reduce exploitative cross-border arrangements.
Children born via voided international surrogacy agreements (and their families) face substantial legal uncertainty about parentage, custody, and citizenship, creating risks of prolonged custody disputes or immigration complications.
Prospective parents from listed foreign countries and some foreign nationals are effectively barred from enforceable parentage rights or face presumptions against parentage, disadvantaging those families and potentially discriminating based on nationality.
Surrogate mothers and small surrogacy businesses could experience economic harm — lost compensation for surrogates, fewer broker services, higher costs for intended parents, and harm to small agencies dependent on international arrangements.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 13, 2026 by Blake D. Moore · Last progress January 13, 2026
Makes most surrogacy agreements unenforceable when the intended parents are citizens or lawful permanent residents of defined “foreign entities of concern,” creates a legal presumption that such agreements transfer parental rights away from the U.S. surrogate, and makes it a federal crime for brokers who knowingly or recklessly facilitate those void agreements. When an agreement is void, state law (the surrogate’s state) must decide custody using the child’s best interests, and prior surrogacy contracts are given no legal effect in that custody decision. Includes a narrow exception for agreements where two prospective parents are legally married and at least one is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The bill ties the covered foreign actors to an existing federal statutory definition and imposes up to one year in prison and/or fines for violating broker prohibitions.