Report: Chinese Nationals Use Loophole in California Law for ‘Rent-a-Womb’ Scheme
As President Donald Trump is battling to end birthright citizenship, Chinese nationals are reportedly using the largely unregulated surrogacy industry in the United States — specifically California— to rent the wombs of American women to have babies and take them back to China, NewsNation reported.
It’s a practice that it dubbed “concerning,” not “not illegal,” unlike another underground industry in the state, where Chinese nationals work with “baby brokers” to bring pregnant Chinese women into the country so their babies are born U.S. citizens, according to the report.
When wealthy Chinese couples “rent a womb,” and pay an American woman to be the surrogate, the resulting child is automatically a U.S. citizen, even if the family immediately returns to China.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Joseph McNally told the outlet the practice is gravely concerning, and pointed to a case in Irvine where a baby born to a Chinese national and ended up joining to Chinese military but still had a U.S. passport.
“That provides a real national security asset to China. And a real problem to the United States,” McNally said.
Clients pay around $200,000 to do the surrogacy process in the U.S., and roughly $70,000 goes to the surrogate, according to the report.
Parham Zar, owner of the Egg Donor and Surrogacy Institute in Beverly Hills, told the outlet that at one point, 90 percent of their clients were Chinese. Although he argued that the practice is not always for duplicitous purposes.
“It is a misnomer in this field that people are just coming here to be a U.S. citizen,” he said. “I haven’t met anyone who had nefarious intentions of having a child. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to go through this process.”
The Heritage Foundation released a report on this very practice in 2024 called: “The New Face of Birth Tourism: Chinese Nationals, American Surrogates, and Birthright Citizenship.” The report notes that China’s now-ended one-child policy and its resulting societal impacts, combined with the fact that surrogacy is illegal in China, could be contributing to Chinese nationals’ use of the American surrogacy industry to create a family.
The report details:
Commercial surrogacy is illegal in China. In 2016, China lifted its restrictive one-child policy, but little changed in the childbearing outcomes of its citizens. Desperate to spur childbearing amid a looming demographic crisis, some provinces have even lifted restrictions that made it difficult and costly for children of unmarried parents to obtain a hukou—the household registration document that largely determines the child’s access to education and social services. The changes enable unmarried men and women to bear children without a financial penalty. This opened the door further for the Chinese to commission surrogate-born children in the United States. Nevertheless, birth rates continue to decline.
Of those Chinese men and women who desire more children, many are past childbearing age, cannot find a willing partner, or are dealing with other fertility issues. Many clients hiring surrogates in the United States are no doubt well-meaning actors who simply desire a child to love that would also carry on their family name and take care of them in their old age—responsibilities traditionally given to offspring in China. But surrogacy itself perpetuates inequalities in childbearing as only wealthy Chinese can afford this option, and no laws protect the involved parties—the surrogate mother, the child, or the intended parents—from abuse by bad actors.
The report notes that “[f]ertility organizations and agencies in the U.S. encourage this international market with China,” and that “[g]iven California’s proximity to Asia and its permissive surrogacy regime, a review of top agencies in the Golden State shows extensive connections between American surrogacy agencies and China.”
“Many websites offer language options in English and Mandarin or even in Mandarin only; employ doctors, administrators, and case workers who hail from China; and in some instances show two office locations: one in California and one in mainland China,” the report states.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) has been sounding the alarm on this practice, calling it “incredibly strange and dystopian,” according to News Nation.
“Because of advances in technology, lax surrogacy laws, and the incorrect understanding of the 14th Amendment, countries are now using international surrogacy programs to rent wombs in America,” Hagemen said.
“I just think we need to be having a national dialogue as to whether we think this is ethical, whether we think that this is appropriate. Whether we should be interpreting our own laws to be allowing the buying and selling of children essentially or the buying and selling of wombs,” she added.
As for the illegal underground “baby farm” industry in California, law enforcement has made several recent busts and is working to crackdown on the practice, which has been happening for at least a decade, News Nation journalist Brian Entin reported.
Officials told Entin that illegal Chinese birthing agencies will organize trips to California and charge at least $100,000 and that couples are often housed in luxury apartments and mansions in the suburbs of Los Angeles, which neighbors call “baby farms.” California hotels and motels have also reported seeing many Chinese pregnant women, and say some would come and stay for months before giving birth.
McNally told Entin this “system” has led to the births of at least 30,000 Chinese babies into U.S. citizenship.
“These were criminal enterprises that operated here in the United States and also people in China who would recruit,” McNally said. “The organizers here had contacts at hospitals and had contacts there. It was an industry. The organizers of these schemes were responsible for the birth tourism of thousands of babies. They had a system in place.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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