It’s a stark, unsettling reality: American babies are being bought, sold, and shipped overseas like commodities. This isn't science fiction; it's a thriving, unregulated industry turning the miracle of birth into a grotesque transactional market, with alarming implications for national security and the very fabric of American values.
Just last year, a shocking Wall Street Journal exposé pulled back the curtain on this dark corner of the surrogacy world. Its headline alone told a chilling story: "The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate." The article detailed the disturbing case of Xu Bo, a video game mogul whose company astonishingly claimed he has "more than 100 children born through surrogacy in the U.S.," predominantly boys.
These children, by virtue of their birth on American soil, are legally U.S. citizens. Yet, they are being acquired en masse and sent abroad to individuals like Xu Bo. The question isn't just "why" this is happening, but "how" we as a nation are allowing American citizens—infants, no less—to be treated as mail-order goods for the ultra-rich.
The answer, of course, is money. And a sophisticated, if ethically bankrupt, infrastructure. The Journal reported on a "thriving mini-industry of American surrogacy agencies, law firms, clinics, delivery agencies and nanny services—even to pick up the newborns from hospitals." Chinese nationals don't even need to step foot in the U.S.; they can "ship their genetic material abroad and get a baby delivered back, at a cost of up to $200,000 per child." A vial of semen, a hefty sum, and an American citizen is delivered to their doorstep.
This goes far beyond a single eccentric billionaire. The CEO of an IVF company catering to the Chinese market revealed a significant surge in clients "commissioning dozens, or even hundreds, of U.S.-born babies with the goal of 'forging an unstoppable family dynasty.'" One client, almost unbelievably, sought more than 200 children at once. While some in the industry might decline such extreme requests, others have no such qualms. The owner of one California agency openly admitted to helping fulfill an order for a Chinese parent seeking 100 children in just a few years, a request spread across multiple agencies. And somehow, they still expect Americans not to notice.
The surrogacy industry cloaks itself in the guise of compassion, portraying itself as a selfless service for infertile couples. But the reality, as this reporting brutally exposes, is a willingness to "factory-farm" babies for anyone with enough cash. With no serious industry standards, the door is wide open for those with few scruples to fulfill even the most outrageous orders. If Chinese billionaires want American babies by the dozen, someone in this industry will provide them. And currently, it's all perfectly legal.
It's not just China taking advantage of the U.S.'s notoriously lax IVF and surrogacy regulations. Our nation has become a global supermarket for American babies. What's particularly galling is the hypocrisy: many on the political left, who are quick to fiercely defend the "Americanness" of every baby born on U.S. soil, are simultaneously enabling the sale of these very American citizens to overseas buyers, including those in hostile nations.
Even President Trump's valiant efforts to curtail birthright citizenship did not fully close this particular loophole. As Emma Waters pointed out at the time, his executive order did not prevent citizenship for babies born via surrogacy—even if those infants were immediately sent to China. And now, a recent Supreme Court decision further entrenches the surrogacy loophole, extending it even to babies born to immigrant surrogates, whether legal or illegal.
However, this doesn't mean America is powerless to stop the flow of its infants overseas, especially to authoritarian regimes. Republican states are leading the charge. Florida, under strong conservative leadership, has already banned "surrogacy contracts in which any party is a citizen or resident of a 'foreign country of concern,' including nations such as China, Russia, and Iran." Every other GOP-controlled state should swiftly follow this common-sense example.
Federally, while challenges remain regarding broader birthright citizenship reform, the sale of American babies to foreign entities is a distinct and pressing problem that a Trump administration could—and must—address directly. The Supreme Court's ruling, in its own way, starkly illuminates the sheer absurdity and profound moral evil of a surrogacy industry that allows American citizens to be ordered from overseas, granted citizenship, and then immediately shipped off to be raised by citizens of powers that actively work against America's interests.
The U.S. government must stop treating contracts for American babies as mere commercial transactions. Instead, a Trump administration should recognize this for what it truly is: a grave form of human trafficking and a direct national security threat. We impose export controls on critical technologies and sensitive goods; it is time to add American infants to that list. Making America Great Again demands a moral compass that refuses to countenance the selling of American babies to foreign adversaries.
