Exposing The Chinese “Rent-A-Womb” Industry In America

Federal officials are targeting a long-running underground birth tourism industry in California, where Chinese nationals pay baby brokers to ensure their children are born as U.S. citizens.

Authorities say pregnant women are often housed in upscale homes and apartments near Los Angeles—dubbed “baby farms” by locals. These illegal operations can charge over $100,000 per pregnancy, according to NewsNation.

“This was an industry,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. “These were criminal enterprises that operated here in the United States and also people in China who would recruit. The organizers… were responsible for the birth tourism of thousands of babies. They had a system in place.”

McNally estimates that roughly 30,000 babies were born through these schemes.

NewsNation reports that hotels and motels across the U.S. have reported an influx of pregnant Chinese women staying for months to give birth on American soil.

For wealthier couples, another route is surrogacy—paying American women to carry their child. These babies, born with U.S. citizenship, often return to China immediately after birth.

“Anytime somebody has a U.S. passport, it means they have access to the United States,” warned Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. He cited a case where a baby born in Irvine later joined the Chinese military while still holding a U.S. passport. “That provides a real national security asset to China. And a real problem to the United States,” he said.

While not illegal, McNally said the trend is deeply concerning.

Parham Zar, head of a Beverly Hills surrogacy agency, said at one point 90% of his clients were Chinese, with surrogacy packages costing around $200,000. He defended the practice: “It is a misnomer in this field that people are just coming here to be a U.S. citizen… I haven’t met anyone who had nefarious intentions of having a child.”

Still, the issue has drawn political scrutiny. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) called it “strange and dystopian,” adding: “We need to be having a national dialogue… whether we should be interpreting our own laws to be allowing the buying and selling of children essentially or the buying and selling of wombs.”