Desperate for a Baby: Scammed in Global Surrogacy's Newest Frontier

Jonah Winn-Lenetsky and Chris Pommier have wanted children ever since they started dating in college more than a decade ago. Last year, the New Mexico couple thought they had finally found a solution in Cancun, Mexico – the newest destination for Americans seeking international surrogacy.

"You could see the Caribbean and the blue waters and it was amazing and it was gorgeous," Pommier said. "We put our wishes out into the universe there."

The couple had gone south of the border to visit an agency called Planet Hospital.

Since 2006, the California-based medical tourism company had helped Americans with surrogacy and other medical practices in India. But when the country enacted regulations in recent years that restricted gay couples, single parents and those married for less than two years from pursuing surrogacy there, Planet Hospital turned its focus to Mexico, specifically Tabasco, the single Mexican state that doesn't regulate against surrogacy. As long as the baby is born here, just a day's trip from Cancun, all surrogacy contracts are enforceable, and the intended parents – regardless...