China not only owns a disproportionate amount of American debt, but a new report reveals it also rents a disproportionate number of American wombs.
In July, researchers using data from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinic Outcome Reporting System found that Chinese nationals make up the largest percentage of foreign surrogacy contracts in the United States. This report — in the journal Fertility and Sterility, which is published on behalf of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine — compared the demographics of domestic and international intended parents. The latter category refers to men and women who are foreign nationals but come to the United States to hire an American surrogate to bear their child(ren). The rent-a-womb industry is disproportionately fueled by Chinese nationals (13.4 percent), followed by France (2.9 percent).
Of these foreign nationals, which come mainly from China, many are men over the age of 42 (33.9 percent compared to 26.2 percent of domestic intended parents). They are also far more likely than prospective domestic parents (roughly 74 percent as opposed to 54 percent) to use preimplantation genetic testing. This allows intended parents to select the “ideal” embryo based on the child’s sex, health, lack of genetic anomalies, and even eye, hair, and skin color. While sex-based abortion is illegal in some states, preimplantation genetic testing provides intended parents with an effective workaround.
Researchers used data from 2014–2020 (the most recent years available). In recent years, the number of surrogacy cycles increased from 3,538 cycles in 2014 to 8,145 cycles in 2019. In
