(LifeSiteNews) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a law banning surrogacy contracts with citizens of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Syria.
“China ships people here for birth,” said DeSantis. “It’s really a seedy thing.”
“I know we’re hoping that the Supreme Court is going to interpret the 14th Amendment, so that we can put a stop to some of the people coming here for a month, having birth, and then going back to China,” DeSantis said. “That’s part of an operation. Why would we let that happen, and grant citizenship under those circumstances?”
The new law, which bans pre-planned adoption agreements and gestational surrogacy contracts, goes into effect on July 1.
“Today, registered sex offenders and foreigners—including Chinese nationals—buy thousands of babies from U.S. surrogacy companies,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.
“This modern day slavery is morally wrong, endangers children, and threatens national security,” said Uthmeier. “It must be stopped.”
READ: Case for a ‘universal ban’ on surrogacy is gaining steam around the world
Earlier this year, Republican U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate the proliferation of Chinese-owned surrogacy labs throughout the country.
“Alarming reports indicate that Chinese nationals are systematically exploiting America’s surrogacy and birthright citizenship laws,” the senators wrote on February 26.
The Wall Street Journal highlighted a particularly egregious example in December 2025.
The newspaper profiled Xu Bo, a Chinese billionaire and video game company executive. Bo reportedly has 100 children in the United States he had created through surrogacy. A chilling video posted by the Journal shows dozens of toddlers running toward Bo, reportedly saying, “Daddy.”
“Another wealthy Chinese executive, Wang Huiwu, hired U.S. models and others as egg donors to have 10 girls, with the aim of one day marrying them off to powerful men, according to people close to the executive’s education company,” according to the WSJ report.
Children’s rights activists see the new Florida law as an intermediate step to the outright banning of all surrogacy in the U.S.
This is a “HUGE step forward in protecting citizenship, national security, and the best interests of women and children,” declared Emma Waters, senior policy analyst in the Center for Technology and the Human Person at the Heritage Foundation whose work focuses on family, biotechnology, and reproductive medicine.
🚨 Florida becomes the first state to sign a law stopping foreign nationals from China/Russia from buying babies in the United States via commercial surrogacy.
HUGE step forward in protecting citizenship, national security, and the best interests of women and children. pic.twitter.com/IRjlvQYW6O
— Emma Waters (@emlwaters) May 14, 2026
“This is a step in the right direction!” noted the global children’s rights organization Them Before Us. “Children have a right not to be bought, sold, and separated from their birth mother at birth.”
