Sponsors (2)
The bill trades stronger protections against exploitive cross-border surrogacy and national-security risks for significant legal uncertainty, potential loss of enforceable parental agreements, and increased health, litigation, and administrative costs for many intended parents, surrogates, and children.
Parents and children in U.S.-based surrogacy cases will have clearer legal rules for parentage and custody (including presumptions identifying surrogacy and use of the child's best interests under the surrogate's state law), reducing some cases of legal limbo for U.S. families and prioritizing child welfare.
Women (particularly low-income surrogates) and prospective parents may be better protected from exploitative commercial cross-border surrogacy because criminal penalties and invalidation of certain foreign-facilitated agreements create a deterrent against abusive brokers and contracts.
Reduces the risk that foreign hostile actors use U.S. surrogacy to secure citizenship or immigration benefits for children, strengthening immigration and national-security safeguards.
Surrogates and intended parents in the U.S. may lose legally enforceable contracts and face uncertainty about parental rights, custody, and payment, exposing many families and surrogate mothers to legal and financial risk.
Criminalizing brokers and voiding certain cross-border agreements could push commercial or international surrogacy underground or into informal channels, increasing health, safety, and oversight risks for surrogates and infants.
Children born in the U.S. to foreign intended parents (especially from designated 'entities of concern') risk being left in legal limbo or custody disputes, disrupting families and complicating diplomatic and immigration issues.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Introduced November 4, 2025 by Richard Lynn Scott · Last progress November 4, 2025
Makes commercial surrogacy agreements unenforceable when a U.S. surrogate or a birth in the United States involves prospective parents who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of certain designated foreign “entities of concern.” It defines key terms (prospective parent, surrogate, surrogacy broker), creates a presumption that many arrangements are surrogacy agreements, and criminalizes surrogacy brokers who knowingly or recklessly facilitate such void agreements (penalty: up to 1 year imprisonment, a fine, or both). The bill preserves a narrow exception for agreements with two legally married prospective parents when at least one is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, and directs that custody for children born under voided agreements be decided by state courts under the child’s best interests with no legal effect given to the original surrogacy contract.