Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) long championed protecting American children in the brave new world of international surrogacy. In November 2025, he introduced the SAFE KIDS Act, the first bill ever introduced in Congress pertaining to international surrogacy. This legislation addresses one of the most pressing (and underestimated) threats of our time. This threat cannot be overstated.
When FBI agents raided a nine-bedroom mansion in Arcadia, California, last year, they uncovered 21 infants and toddlers, all claimed by a single Chinese-born couple, Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang. Birth certificates listed the pair as parents of every child. The babies had been born across the country in rapid succession, delivered by surrogates who, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation, had been systematically deceived about who they were carrying children for and how many other women had been recruited alongside them.
This case is not an anomaly, and the international dimensions of this issue make it worse. Because surrogacy is illegal in China, wealthy Chinese nationals have made the United States the world’s premier reproductive marketplace, with some Chinese clients paying up to $200,000 per child. According to a 2024 study from Emory University, 42 percent of international surrogacy contracts are entered into with Chinese nationals.
One recent article, for example, reported on a Chinese billionaire who had over 100 contracts with American women to give birth to his children, all of whom were slated to be shipped abroad to China. He unabashedly admitted that he had a dynastic intent to marry these children off to Chinese officials. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, surrogacy contracts in California are almost invariably under seal, so we don’t fully understand the scope of this issue at present. It is likely much worse than we know. But what we do know is chilling enough.
This trend represents a massive national security threat that Americans need to be paying attention to. Under the United States’ current birthright citizenship jurisprudence, every one of these children shipped to China is a U.S. citizen by birth. Most will be raised in China. We are therefore selling American children to our fiercest adversary. In eighteen years, due to the unregulated nature of surrogacy and the current state of U.S. law, this means that we will have fighting age men and women who have been indoctrinated by our bitterest rival yet enjoying the benefits of United States citizenship.
This national security threat demands immediate attention from Congress. That said, even though most of the West regulates surrogacy in some fashion, international surrogacy remains almost entirely unregulated in the United States.
Defenders of surrogacy frame it as an act of generosity that helps infertile couples build families. That narrative exists. But it has been overtaken by an industry that treats women’s bodies as rentable infrastructure, children as deliverable products, and American citizenship as something to be priced, packaged, and shipped. The surrogacy industry as it is currently constituted is modern day slavery and human trafficking. Until lawmakers impose meaningful regulation, an untold number of American children are already on their way to our fiercest enemies.
I give Senator Rick Scott immense credit for his leadership in this space. I was first introduced to this issue while serving as his General Counsel in the U.S. Senate. After discussing the issue with him, he took immediate and decisive action, and I helped draft the legislation that was ultimately introduced. The SAFE KIDS Act became the first ever surrogacy bill authored in the United States Senate. The bill cracks down on surrogacy contracts entered into with citizens of our fiercest adversaries, including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. It was calculated to be as bipartisan as possible, agreeable to even the most progressive members. In essence, it simply states that American children aren’t for sale to our fiercest adversaries. Yet as things stand, it does not appear as though there are any Democrats in Congress with the backbone to stand up to our foreign adversaries and foreign entities of concern.
I’m encouraged to see hope rising from the states, and my home state of Florida specifically. Just days ago, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) signed Florida’s FIRE Act into law. The bill is essentially a replica of Senator Scott’s SAFE KIDS Act and adds Venezuela and Syria to the list of foreign entities of concern. Red states — and sensible blue states — should swiftly follow Florida’s lead and pass state versions of Senator Scott’s SAFE KIDS Act.
As a candidate for Congress in my home district of Florida’s 2nd Congressional District, I regularly discuss this issue with voters as a clear example of why confronting the China threat must remain a top American foreign policy priority. I will continue speaking out on this critical issue because it deserves the full attention of the American people, and the next Congress elected in November. Our national security demands it. The lives of America’s children, and the future of our culture, depend on it too.
Austin Rogers is a lifelong Panama City native, conservative attorney, and former General Counsel to U.S. Senator Rick Scott. He is a candidate for Congress in Florida’s 2nd congressional district.
