Republican lawmakers have introduced two bills targeting the surrogacy industry's most grotesque loopholes — the ones that let convicted sex offenders obtain children and foreign nationals effectively purchase American babies like luxury goods. While Democrats spend their days debating pronouns, the GOP is writing legislation to stop predators from shopping for kids.

Wild concept, right? Protecting children. Someone should try it more often.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) led the charge alongside Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) at a June 4 press conference unveiling the Protecting Kids from Creeps Act and the Preventing International Surrogacy Exploitation Act. Perry didn't mince words: the bills exist to "put children first" and "help prevent predators and foreign actors from obtaining children in our Nation for personal gain, profit, or other nefarious reasons."

The Protecting Kids from Creeps Act would require surrogacy agencies to screen customers and conduct background checks — a measure so obvious you'd think it already existed. It doesn't. Under the bill, sex offenders who attempt to obtain children through surrogacy face a 20-year minimum federal prison sentence. Agency employees who knowingly connect predators with surrogates get the same 20-year minimum. Negligent agency leadership faces 10 years plus a permanent ban on federal grant money.

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The Preventing International Surrogacy Exploitation Act goes after the foreign pipeline. It would void surrogacy contracts between American surrogates and foreign national prospective parents, and brokers who facilitate those arrangements face up to 10 years in federal prison plus civil penalties. Perry called international surrogacy what it is: "Birth tourism — it's a national security threat that invites immigration fraud and malfeasance."

Now here's why these bills exist, and it's not theoretical. The cases that prompted this legislation read like a horror novel.

Consider Brandon Mitchell of Pennsylvania — a Tier 1 sex offender convicted of soliciting explicit images from a teenage student, exchanging over 12,000 texts and pictures with the minor. Mitchell served roughly 2 months of a 2-year sentence before parole. He and his partner Logan Riley then obtained a child through surrogacy. A convicted child predator, paroled early, buying a baby. No background check required.

Then there's Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, celebrated in 1999 as one of Britain's first "gay fathers." He obtained 8 children through surrogacy across two partnerships — 5 with his first partner, 3 with his current one. He's now been charged with human trafficking, rape, and sexual assault.

Joshua Lee Gilliam and Ronald Wayne Lynch Jr. of North Carolina — OnlyFans content creators charged with child sexual exploitation — allegedly have five children. The Federalist, which broke this story, also highlighted the international dimension with cases like Xu Bo of China, who reportedly fathered approximately 200 children through U.S. surrogacy clinics, with over 100 confirmed. Another Chinese national, Wang Huiwu, created 10 daughters through American surrogates with the stated intention of arranging "influential marriages."

Perry summed it up perfectly: "Children are not pets; children are not property."

That sentence shouldn't need to be said by a United States congressman in 2026. The fact that it does tells you everything about the loopholes that currently exist in American surrogacy law — which is to say, there basically aren't any federal regulations at all.

The left will scream that these bills are somehow discriminatory. Count on it. But the cases speak for themselves: convicted predators obtaining children, foreign nationals mass-producing American citizens through surrogacy mills, and an industry with zero federal oversight happy to cash the checks.

Republicans are writing laws to protect kids. Let's see who votes against them.