“I felt like it was such a transactional experience,” Khloe Kardashian said on Season 3 of The Kardashians. “It’s not about [the baby]. I wish someone was honest about surrogacy and the difference of it.”Whether it is gestational surrogacy — in which the surrogate has no genetic relationship to the child — or traditional surrogacy, the practice is severely unregulated. Surrogacy produces over 3,000 births annually and is not subject to any strict federal laws. All regulation resides with the states and is implemented through contracts drafted by lawyers who help intended parents and surrogates agree on matters such as parental rights, surrogate compensation, and the relationship between the surrogate and child after birth.While surrogacy has enabled many couples to become parents, including women for whom pregnancy would be medically dangerous, the vast majority of American surrogacies are performed commercially — meaning that women are compensated anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000 for carrying another couple’s baby. The media have described these women as having “wombs for hire.” And it is true that surrogates may sign contracts that restrict vital rights, including the right to refuse an abortion requested by the intended parents.