“A bill 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 declares congressional findings that citizens of foreign entities of concern exploit U.S. commercial surrogacy laws—posing a national security threat exemplified by human trafficking in Arcadia, California—and states 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 agreements.
This section establishes definitions for purposes of the Act, including (1) "foreign entity of concern" as any foreign nation listed under section 4872(f)(2) of title 10, United States Code; (2) "prospective parent" as 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" as 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 prospective parent(s), with a presumption of such relinquishment (and thus a surrogacy agreement) for arrangements with prospective parents who are citizens or permanent residents of a foreign entity of concern even if parental rights are not expressly addressed; (4) "surrogacy broker" as any individual or entity that induces, arranges, procures, facilitates, or assists in forming or executing a surrogacy agreement; and (5) "surrogate parent" as a person who agrees to become pregnant, give birth to a child, and relinquish all parental rights under a surrogacy agreement.
This section renders void and unenforceable a surrogacy agreement between a surrogate parent who is in the United States at the time of birth or is 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 a prospective parent who is a citizen or permanent resident of a foreign entity of concern. 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 a surrogacy agreement void 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 shall be determined based on 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.