State lawmakers are exploring prohibiting foreign nationals from using Texas surrogates, elevating a niche fertility issue into a larger battle over immigration and birthright citizenship, surrogacy experts say.The Texas Senate health committee will hear testimony on Wednesday about potentially banning foreign nationals from contracting with Texas surrogates to have children, after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made examining the issue an interim charge for the chamber ahead of the legislative session that starts in January. Last month, the Texas GOP also approved in its latest platform a ban on commercial surrogacy for foreign nationals, arguing that the practice lets children born under such circumstances obtain U.S. citizenship.Surrogacy is a medical procedure where a woman carries and delivers a child for another party. This is typically accomplished by transferring an embryo to the surrogate via in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the surrogate and the child are not biologically related. Among the most common users of surrogates are families who are suffering from fertility issues, as well as LGBTQ+ families.
Surrogacy experts and advocacy groups in Texas say arrangements with foreign nationals account for a small percentage of the thousands of surrogacy births that are estimated to occur in the U.S. every year. The exact number is unknown because surrogacy contracts are private and the government does not collect data.
