Current regulations permit no nationwide limits on the number of children per donor or reuse of a single surrogate, underscoring regulatory gaps the proposal seeks to close.

The legislation follows prior reporting and investigations into surrogacy abuses, including alleged cases involving foreign nationals and schemes to obtain numerous American children through surrogacy.

Wall Street Journal reporting has highlighted a Chinese billionaire coordinating surrogacy for over 100 babies, with mothers allegedly deceived about the nationality status of surrogates, raising trafficking and coercion concerns.

Background context notes the U.S. surrogacy industry is largely unregulated and lacks enforceable mechanisms to ensure ethical conduct by agencies.

The bill targets paid commercial surrogacy arrangements and would not affect altruistic surrogacy where a friend or family member carries a child at no cost beyond medical expenses.

A bipartisan push led by Utah Rep. Blake Moore introduces the SAFE KIDS Act to invalidate commercial surrogacy agreements involving citizens of foreign adversary countries and to create a misdemeanor for brokers who facilitate these deals.

Among original co-sponsors are a broad Republican coalition, with Moore emphasizing national security and humanitarian concerns about foreign adversaries using U.S. surrogacy to gain citizenship for children.

Senator Rick Scott originally introduced the bill, making it the first to address national security and ethical risks in the largely unregulated U.S. surrogacy market.

Moore co-leads an effort to curb foreign nationals’ use of U.S. surrogacy services, aiming to close federal loopholes that could be exploited for birthright citizenship and security risks.

Readers can access the full bill text through a provided link for exact legislative language.

Lawmakers argue the U.S. lacks comprehensive federal regulation of commercial surrogacy, relying on state laws and private guidelines, which can enable abuse and potential espionage by foreign adversaries.

Proponents say such practices enable trafficking-like abuses and could yield many American-born children with passports used by adversarial regimes, compromising national security.