“To prevent citizens of foreign adversarial nations from entering into or enforcing surrogacy contracts in the United States.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states congressional findings that citizens of foreign entities of concern are exploiting U.S. commercial surrogacy laws—posing a national security threat and facilitating human trafficking, as evidenced by recent events in Arcadia, California—and declares the purposes of the Act to acknowledge such abuse, invalidate surrogate parentage contracts between prospective parents from foreign entities of concern and U.S. surrogate mothers, and impose criminal penalties on surrogacy brokers facilitating such contracts.
This section defines five terms for purposes of the Act: (1) foreign entity of concern, meaning any foreign nation listed under section 4872(f)(2) of title 10, United States Code; (2) prospective parent, meaning an individual who enters into a surrogacy agreement to become the legal or custodial parent of a child birthed by a surrogate parent; (3) surrogacy agreement, meaning a contract, agreement, or arrangement (oral or written, direct or brokered) under which a surrogate parent agrees to become pregnant, give birth to a child, and relinquish all parental rights to the prospective parent(s)—with a presumption that such an arrangement constitutes a surrogacy agreement if it involves a prospective parent who is a citizen or permanent resident of a foreign entity of concern, even if it does not expressly address parental rights; (4) surrogacy broker, meaning any individual or entity that induces, arranges, procures, facilitates, or assists in forming or executing a surrogacy agreement; and (5) surrogate parent, meaning a person who agrees to become pregnant, give birth to a child, and relinquish all parental rights under a surrogacy agreement.
This section declares void and unenforceable surrogacy agreements between a surrogate parent who is in the United States at the time of birth or a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident and (1) a prospective parent who is a citizen or permanent resident of a foreign entity of concern, or (2) a surrogacy broker arranging such an agreement with such a prospective parent. An exception applies if the agreement is between the surrogate parent and two legally married prospective parents with at least one being a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
This section prohibits a surrogacy broker from knowingly or recklessly inducing, arranging, procuring, facilitating, or otherwise assisting in the formation or execution of a surrogacy agreement that is void and unenforceable under section 4, with penalties of a fine under title 18, United States Code, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
This section establishes that legal custody of a child born pursuant to a surrogacy agreement void and unenforceable under section 4 is determined by the best interests of the child under the law of the state where the surrogate parent resides, with no effect given to the surrogacy agreement or any other purported agreement, contract, or understanding concerning custody.