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Year-long investigation reveals horrific abuses in surrogacy industry
CBS News shared the results of a multi-year investigation into the surrogacy industry, finding multiple abuses affecting women and children.
CBS News conducted a year-long investigation into the surrogacy industry and found it rife with abuse.
Vulnerable women were lured to be surrogates with promises of large paychecks and assurances that they were helping infertile would-be parents.
Instead, buyers were found to have contracted multiple surrogates at a time, with few background checks or other safeguards in place to protect the women or the children involved.
Many surrogates said they had no idea the would-be parents had multiple surrogacy arrangements in place, or didn't know the people to whom they were giving the children.
California was found to be an epicenter for surrogacy.
After one year and interviews with 32 surrogates, CBS News published the results of its investigation into the surrogacy industry. The industry is shockingly under-regulated, despite clear examples of systemic abuses.
CBS News found that many of the women contracted to be surrogates were low-income mothers in vulnerable situations, which made them easier to exploit. This includes women who were undocumented immigrants or single mothers; they hoped the money would enable them to provide better lives for their children, and that they would be unwilling to ask questions or go to authorities due to their immigration status.
Andrea is an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who decided to become a surrogate because she is a single mother, and was hoping to earn money for her children. She served as a surrogate twice, though she experienced several disturbing issues.
"I know I'm not the only one. There must be more. I feel it's an issue that isn't very well controlled in the United States, " she said. Initially, she agreed to speak to CBS News on camera, wanting to bring attention to the lack of regulations and the exploitation of undocumented women, but later refused to appear on camera, saying, "I can't. I'm too scared."
Another woman, "Judy," likewise became a surrogate to provide for her family. Judy has a seven-year-old daughter and lives with her father. She hoped to make enough money to afford a home on her own.
"I wanted to build a better life for me and my daughter," she said. It wasn't until after Judy signed her contract that she found out the intended parent had simultaneously hired multiple other surrogates. Yet at that point, she felt it was too late to back out, because she needed the money and was scared of the repercussions of breaking her contract.
"The agency should've been very transparent from before getting matched … about who it is that you're having a baby for and what the family is," Judy said.
Virtually every surrogate CBS News interviewed said their agencies were not transparent about the identities of the intended parents.
Andrea said she had a video call with a couple her agency claimed were the intended parents. Yet after she delivered, two people she had never seen before arrived.
"When the baby was born and they arrived at the hospital, it was a completely different couple," she said.
Mayra Arely Hernandez carried twins for the same couple as Andrea. She didn't meet them until the delivery, either. "It was weird," Hernandez said. "They wanted the process quick, for me to hurry, to go to the appointments, and for everything to be private."
Another surrogate, Maria Castellanos, was hired by a woman she was told was a single mother. That woman didn't show up at the delivery, causing confusion.
"So who do we hand the baby to?" Castellanos said the nurses asked. She was initially not allowed to hold the baby, either. The woman Castellanos carried the baby for hired her for another pregnancy, paying her more this time, but admitted she was not actually a single mother; she was married.
In numerous instances, the surrogates told CBS News they didn't know until after becoming pregnant that the intended parents had engaged in what could be described as surrogacy farming: contracting multiple surrogates to have multiple children at the same time.
Judy was a surrogate for Xu Bo, a Chinese billionaire who is estimated to have between 100 and 300 children.
"The agency should've been very transparent from before getting matched … about who it is that you're having a baby for and what the family is," Judy said, adding that she has requested to meet him multiple times, unsuccessfully. "It leaves me wondering: do I even have a right to know?"
Castellanos was a surrogate for a Chinese coupled deemed a "national security threat," for having contracted surrogates across the country, with over 20 children born through the scheme. Castellanos said she had no idea.
"I was in shock," she said. "It was a fertility clinic, it was the assistants. There's no way that nobody knew."
While surrogates are hired around the country, California has become a hotspot for the industry.
As CBS News reported, foreign nationals looking to use American surrogates most often travel to California to do so. "We have the most favorable laws and geographically, we are the largest state closest to mainland China or Taiwan," Dean Masserman, a partner at California law firm Vozimer & Masserman Fertility and Family Law Center, told CBS News.
However, he admitted that state laws have not caught up with the changing industry, and that they should "be updated and amended to reflect new things that have arisen."
All 32 surrogates interviewed by CBS News had their embryos implanted in California, even if they did not live there.
McKenna West, the surrogate currently fighting a battle in the Supreme Court to ensure the life and safety of the child she carried, is from Alaska and sought treatment for the baby from specialists in Texas. However, the intended parents are from California, which is where they want the baby transferred to.
Another surrogate engaged in a legal battle, Kyla Simpson, is from Florida, while the intended parent is Chinese; her twins were taken from her and are being cared for in California.
It is not clear if either surrogate was impregnated in California, as the CBS News investigation found.
As attorney Melissa Brisman told CBS News, this is all possible because the fertility industry is extremely under-regulated.
"In most Americans' minds, it's completely unethical [for one set of parents] to have 20 surrogates going at the same time in different states without their knowledge.But there are no laws governing the number of surrogates intended parents can use," she said, adding, "You could open up an agency with $300 and an LLC certificate in most states."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Bridget Sielicki
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·Year-long investigation reveals horrific abuses in surrogacy industry
CBS News shared the results of a multi-year investigation into the surrogacy industry, finding multiple abuses affecting women and children.
CBS News conducted a year-long investigation into the surrogacy industry and found it rife with abuse.
Vulnerable women were lured to be surrogates with promises of large paychecks and assurances that they were helping infertile would-be parents.
Instead, buyers were found to have contracted multiple surrogates at a time, with few background checks or other safeguards in place to protect the women or the children involved.
Many surrogates said they had no idea the would-be parents had multiple surrogacy arrangements in place, or didn't know the people to whom they were giving the children.
California was found to be an epicenter for surrogacy.
After one year and interviews with 32 surrogates, CBS News published the results of its investigation into the surrogacy industry. The industry is shockingly under-regulated, despite clear examples of systemic abuses.
CBS News found that many of the women contracted to be surrogates were low-income mothers in vulnerable situations, which made them easier to exploit. This includes women who were undocumented immigrants or single mothers; they hoped the money would enable them to provide better lives for their children, and that they would be unwilling to ask questions or go to authorities due to their immigration status.
Andrea is an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who decided to become a surrogate because she is a single mother, and was hoping to earn money for her children. She served as a surrogate twice, though she experienced several disturbing issues.
"I know I'm not the only one. There must be more. I feel it's an issue that isn't very well controlled in the United States, " she said. Initially, she agreed to speak to CBS News on camera, wanting to bring attention to the lack of regulations and the exploitation of undocumented women, but later refused to appear on camera, saying, "I can't. I'm too scared."
Another woman, "Judy," likewise became a surrogate to provide for her family. Judy has a seven-year-old daughter and lives with her father. She hoped to make enough money to afford a home on her own.
"I wanted to build a better life for me and my daughter," she said. It wasn't until after Judy signed her contract that she found out the intended parent had simultaneously hired multiple other surrogates. Yet at that point, she felt it was too late to back out, because she needed the money and was scared of the repercussions of breaking her contract.
"The agency should've been very transparent from before getting matched … about who it is that you're having a baby for and what the family is," Judy said.
Virtually every surrogate CBS News interviewed said their agencies were not transparent about the identities of the intended parents.
Andrea said she had a video call with a couple her agency claimed were the intended parents. Yet after she delivered, two people she had never seen before arrived.
"When the baby was born and they arrived at the hospital, it was a completely different couple," she said.
Mayra Arely Hernandez carried twins for the same couple as Andrea. She didn't meet them until the delivery, either. "It was weird," Hernandez said. "They wanted the process quick, for me to hurry, to go to the appointments, and for everything to be private."
Another surrogate, Maria Castellanos, was hired by a woman she was told was a single mother. That woman didn't show up at the delivery, causing confusion.
"So who do we hand the baby to?" Castellanos said the nurses asked. She was initially not allowed to hold the baby, either. The woman Castellanos carried the baby for hired her for another pregnancy, paying her more this time, but admitted she was not actually a single mother; she was married.
In numerous instances, the surrogates told CBS News they didn't know until after becoming pregnant that the intended parents had engaged in what could be described as surrogacy farming: contracting multiple surrogates to have multiple children at the same time.
Judy was a surrogate for Xu Bo, a Chinese billionaire who is estimated to have between 100 and 300 children.
"The agency should've been very transparent from before getting matched … about who it is that you're having a baby for and what the family is," Judy said, adding that she has requested to meet him multiple times, unsuccessfully. "It leaves me wondering: do I even have a right to know?"
Castellanos was a surrogate for a Chinese coupled deemed a "national security threat," for having contracted surrogates across the country, with over 20 children born through the scheme. Castellanos said she had no idea.
"I was in shock," she said. "It was a fertility clinic, it was the assistants. There's no way that nobody knew."
While surrogates are hired around the country, California has become a hotspot for the industry.
As CBS News reported, foreign nationals looking to use American surrogates most often travel to California to do so. "We have the most favorable laws and geographically, we are the largest state closest to mainland China or Taiwan," Dean Masserman, a partner at California law firm Vozimer & Masserman Fertility and Family Law Center, told CBS News.
However, he admitted that state laws have not caught up with the changing industry, and that they should "be updated and amended to reflect new things that have arisen."
All 32 surrogates interviewed by CBS News had their embryos implanted in California, even if they did not live there.
McKenna West, the surrogate currently fighting a battle in the Supreme Court to ensure the life and safety of the child she carried, is from Alaska and sought treatment for the baby from specialists in Texas. However, the intended parents are from California, which is where they want the baby transferred to.
Another surrogate engaged in a legal battle, Kyla Simpson, is from Florida, while the intended parent is Chinese; her twins were taken from her and are being cared for in California.
It is not clear if either surrogate was impregnated in California, as the CBS News investigation found.
As attorney Melissa Brisman told CBS News, this is all possible because the fertility industry is extremely under-regulated.
"In most Americans' minds, it's completely unethical [for one set of parents] to have 20 surrogates going at the same time in different states without their knowledge.But there are no laws governing the number of surrogates intended parents can use," she said, adding, "You could open up an agency with $300 and an LLC certificate in most states."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Bridget Sielicki
·Issues
Anne Marie Williams, RN, BSN
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·Politics
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·Politics
Cassy Cooke
·International
Cassy Cooke
·BREAKINGInternational
Cassy Cooke
·