A U.S. surrogate says she learned from a television report that she was carrying a child for Chinese billionaire Xu Bo, who has been reported to have fathered more than 100 children through surrogacy, raising questions about what women are entitled to know before carrying pregnancies for others.
The woman, identified as "Judy" to protect her privacy, said she knew the intended parent was a single father and had been told he was using close to two dozen other surrogates. She said she didn't know his identity or the wider scale of his family-building arrangements.
Documents identified Xu as the intended father in Judy's contract. She said she repeatedly asked to meet him but never did.
"It leaves me wondering: do I even have a right to know?" Judy said.
Judy said she responded to an Instagram advertisement from Patriot Conceptions, hoping surrogacy compensation would help her build a better life for herself and her seven-year-old daughter.
Before proceeding, she asked how many other surrogates the intended father was using. "I can't be exact, but I know it was a large number," she said.
Judy said she felt bound by the contract and needed the money. She asked at least five times to meet Xu, according to her account, but those requests went unanswered.
Xu has attracted international attention over the number of children reportedly born through his surrogacy arrangements. His former partner Tang Jing has alleged during a legal dispute that he may have as many as 300 children, a figure Xu has disputed.
An image posted on a Duoyi Network social-media account linked to Xu showed more than 100 young children seated in rows. A subsequent Chinese-language statement said he believed that "more children bring more blessings" and wanted his actions to benefit China's long-term development.
Xu and his representatives didn't respond to requests for comment cited in the investigation. Patriot Conceptions declined a request for an interview.
Judy's experience was part of a broader investigation involving interviews with 32 surrogates and reviews of contracts and court records. Several women said they weren't always told when intended parents were simultaneously using other surrogates.
Some said they met the people taking custody of their babies only at delivery-or not at all beforehand.
Andrea, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras living in California, said she agreed to carry a baby after speaking by video with a young couple. When she gave birth in October 2024, she said an older couple she had never met arrived at the hospital and took the newborn.
Another surrogate, Mayra Arley Hernandez, said she carried twins for the same couple without knowing they were working with other women.
Carla Maeda, founder of Creating Your Dreams Surrogacy, disputed the description of events involving her agency. She said the company arranges matching calls, introduces intended parents and surrogates and maintains communication through pregnancy and delivery.
Scrutiny of the industry has also intensified following a separate case involving Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan of Arcadia, Calif. The couple were arrested in May 2025 on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect, though prosecutors later deferred filing charges while the investigation continued.
Authorities took 21 children into protective custody, including 15 found at the couple's home and six living elsewhere. At least five more babies born through surrogacy arrived after the arrests and were placed in care in other states. Zhang and Xuan have denied wrongdoing in court filings.
The cases expose the fragmented regulation of U.S. surrogacy. Attorney Melissa Brisman, who has represented surrogates and intended parents, said there is no law limiting how many carriers one set of intended parents may use simultaneously, while most states don't require criminal background checks for intended parents.
New York requires surrogacy agencies operating under its framework to be licensed. California, by contrast, has become a major hub for the industry, and all 32 surrogates interviewed in the investigation underwent embryo transfers there, including women who lived elsewhere.
There is no comprehensive official count of U.S. surrogacy births, although people working in the industry have estimated as many as roughly 10,000 annually.
For Judy, the central issue is disclosure. She said she should have been told who the intended father was and more about the circumstances surrounding the arrangement before agreeing to carry his child.
