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EXCLUSIVE: Feds Investigating Alleged China-Linked ‘Rent-A-Womb’ Surrogacy Scandal In California
Federal authorities are investigating allegations of a China-tied, for-profit baby selling operation in California, wherein women are conned into delivering babies for imposter surrogates, The Daily Wire can first report.
Federal sources inside California confirmed the investigation into the alleged “rent-a-womb” scheme on Wednesday evening, after The Daily Wire inquired into claims that the California Department of Child and Family Services removed over 20 babies from the home of a Chinese couple running the Marks Surrogacy agency.
Surrogate mother Kayla Elliot shared with The Daily Wire that she was one of many women contacted through Facebook by Marks Surrogacy, which is now going by the name “Future Spring Surrogacy,” an agency that pairs parents with potential surrogate mothers. She entered into a contract with the agency, carried the baby to term, and gave up the baby to its “intended parents,” she told The Daily Wire.
She says that she and multiple women across the country were contracted by the surrogacy agency to carry children for the same “intended parents” — who, she says, turned out to be Mandarin-speaking employees of the surrogacy agency that had recruited her.
Then she learned, to her horror, that the California child services agency had allegedly discovered 21 babies in the home of the “intended parents,” and that the baby she had birthed was in the care of the state. Elliot said she has since been contacted by the FBI and questioned thoroughly about the agency, its handling of the baby, its ties to China, and more.
The California Department of Child and Family Services and Future Spring Surrogacy did not immediately return The Daily Wire’s requests for comment.
A federal source who spoke with The Daily Wire expressed concerns about the number of children who are born at California delivery centers.
This official described the situation as “very bizarre,” saying: “Babies are being neglected, then transported back to China.” And further, the official pondered, the children are born in the United States and thus have citizenship, but how does one prove that each baby is who the parents are saying they are?
“It’s a national security threat,” he stressed.
Elliot first shared her story with the Center for Bioethics and Culture Executive Director Kallie Fell, who told The Daily Wire that her team was “devastated” by the story — but not surprised. Fell said that the case reflects a disturbing, deeper pattern of “commodification, deception, and international legal loopholes” in the surrogacy industry.
“For years, we’ve warned that the commercial surrogacy industry operates in legal and ethical gray zones, creating conditions ripe for abuse,” she said. “This case isn’t just about one agency or one couple; it reflects a deeper pattern of treating women as wombs-for-hire and children as commodities.”
“We believe this case points to a form of organized reproductive trafficking, and the public should be outraged,” Fell said. “And it won’t stop unless we hold the fertility industry accountable and close our borders to international surrogacy arrangements.”
Mark Surrogacy first reached out to the surrogate mother who spoke with The Daily Wire in January 2024 on Facebook, according to messages reviewed by The Daily Wire.
“I saw your post that you’re interested in becoming a surrogate,” the message said. “I currently am working with a Chinese couple located in Los Angeles CA. They are seeking to find a surrogate to have a baby for them. Would you be open to talk more about it?”
Elliot agreed to the conversation. She met the agency’s requirements and signed on with the agency in February. A July 2024 Facebook post from Mark Surrogacy shows Elliot smiling with a bouquet of flowers, saying that “the embryo is transferred successfully by early July this month.”
When she was about 17 weeks pregnant, however, Elliot began connecting with other surrogate mothers online. She told The Daily Wire that multiple women she connected with said that they had carried babies for the same Chinese couple, all at the same time.
“That’s when I knew something was seriously wrong,” she said in an interview with Fell. After the baby’s birth, she was connected with even more women who had carried babies for the same “intended parents.”
These women, Elliot shared, were from Pennsylvania, Georgia, and California, and they had been talking to each other about the bizarre situation for weeks. They all began sending each other pictures of the same intended mother, she said.
“There was actual diehard, like, picture proof of all these women holding their babes with the same mom standing right next to them,” she told Fell. “Some of them were within weeks of each other. I had the baby March 13, there was a girl who delivered the last week of February, another girl who delivered a couple weeks after I did.”
The women did not know who to contact or what to do, Elliot said. But, now that authorities are involved, they may get some answers.
“This is something NO ONE would have ever imagined,” Elliot wrote on Facebook. “Ever. Worst possible case scenario ever. We are all being patient as well, waiting to hear as investigations move forward. The only facts we have are the facts about our own personal journeys, yet somehow they all tie together in a strange twisted way…One day soon I’m sure this will all be up to the public on the news.”
“Since I’ve come forward on other social media platforms and now [Facebook], many women have stepped forward, making posts in multiple agency review groups, and trying to raise awareness about this horrific agency,” she added. “Yes, all the stories are real. We don’t have guaranteed facts about what has been going on with this agency for years prior but we do now what they’re being investigated for now, so stay away and stay aware!”
Through a GoFundMe, Elliot is now asking for funds to hire a family lawyer to get custody of the baby she birthed this summer.
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