A recent New York Times Magazine investigation exposed a disturbing reality within parts of the global surrogacy industry: women recruited under false pretenses, coerced across borders and exploited through loosely regulated reproductive labor arrangements.

In this episode of The Repro Files, nurse advocates Elizabeth Lee and AnnMarie Luft unpack what happens when surrogacy moves from ethical family building into something far darker. We examine how fragmented laws, reproductive tourism and profit-driven intermediaries create conditions where exploitation and even trafficking can occur.

This is a pro-ethics, pro-patient and pro-accountability conversation about where the system fails and what reproductive medicine must confront head-on.