Two Executive Orders were issued by US President Trump on 6^th August 2026 in a further attempt to curtail birth right citizenship in the USA. 

One of the orders specifically states that no executive department or agency in the USA shall issue documents recognising United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, regarding persons when neither parent of that person is a citizen and when the parent(s) engage in a commercial transaction with a surrogate present in the United States to give birth.

Aileen Gittens recently caught up with Rich Vaughan, lawyer with the International Fertility Law Group in the USA, to discuss what this means for children born via surrogacy in the USA, how this arose, whether birth certificates issued in the USA following surrogacy are still valid and the current status in practice following the Executive Order.

The key takeaways are that:

1. Surrogacy arrangements which would have been valid in the USA prior to the Executive Order, are still valid. 
2. A birth certificate issued in respect of a baby following birth via surrogacy in the USA, is still valid. 
3. The Executive Order does not state that children born via surrogacy in the USA to non US-citizen parents are not US citizens; rather it prohibits US agencies or organisations from issuing documents recognising citizenship (i.e. US passports).
4. The Executive Order provides that public guidance shall be issued within 30 days of the order. This guidance is awaited and in the interim period, US passports are still being issued to babies born via surrogacy to non-US intended parents, in the USA.
5. Legal challenges to this Executive Order have already been mounted and the outcome of those challenges is awaited.

To view this video please click below: