Aggregated News
Nia Trent-Wilson owes $182,889.63 in medical bills for a baby that wasn’t hers.
In late 2021, she agreed to act as a surrogate through an agency that paired her with a gay couple from Washington, D.C. The terms were typical: $70,000, plus fees in the event of potential health complications and a promise that the intended parents would cover medical costs.
Trent-Wilson had been a surrogate twice before and thought she knew what to expect. But this time, the pregnancy went badly sideways. Serious medical complications forced doctors to remove her uterus and fallopian tubes.
She went home with a bill. The parents went home with the baby.
Since its inception in the 1980s, surrogacy has been described by industry leaders and practitioners as an intimate gift to struggling parents from generous surrogates. Tens of thousands of people, including infertile and same-sex couples, have had babies through the technological advances of in vitro fertilization and the willingness of surrogates to carry those children.
But surrogacy in the U.S. has surged into a multibillion-dollar industry in which the women who bear...