Washington, August 28, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A US congressional panel is set to investigate businesses that market maternity services to foreign women travelling to the country for childbirth, citing concerns over birthright citizenship, immigration and national security.
Republican Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas announced on Thursday that the House Oversight Committee task force he chairs will hold a hearing on September 1 titled “Protecting American Citizenship: Confronting Birth Tourism”.
The hearing will examine the scale of birth-tourism arrangements in the US and companies that market maternity packages to expectant mothers living abroad. Such arrangements enable foreign women to travel to the US to give birth, after which their children generally acquire American citizenship.
The committee said it would investigate whether companies were exploiting birthright citizenship and the US immigration system, as well as examining what it described as potential threats to national security and American sovereignty.
“Birth tourism should appall every American citizen. It subverts the rule of law, cheapens American citizenship, and undermines our sovereignty as a nation,” Gill said.
He expressed particular concern about women travelling from countries regarded by Washington as US adversaries, including China and Russia. However, the committee did not provide figures on the number of women who travel to the US annually for this purpose or the proportion coming from those countries.
As part of the inquiry, the committee on Wednesday subpoenaed Dr Wladimir Lorentz, founder and chief medical officer of Miami Medical Concierge Services, which operates as Have My Baby in Miami. He has been directed to testify before the task force at the September 1 hearing in Washington.
The committee had previously contacted Lorentz on May 14 seeking documents concerning the company’s marketing and advertising, service agreements and medical-tourism packages.
It also wrote to Dr Julio César Novoa, medical director and owner of International Maternity Services, seeking similar information. Novoa has been invited to testify at the hearing.
The committee’s announcement did not include responses from Lorentz, Novoa or their companies to the allegations or requests.
Dr Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, is also scheduled to appear as a witness.
The inquiry comes amid a broader US debate over birthright citizenship. The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment provides that people born or naturalised in the US and subject to its jurisdiction are US citizens. The provision has served as the constitutional basis for birthright citizenship for more than 150 years.
Birth tourism itself is not a separate federal criminal offence. However, US authorities have prosecuted operators and participants in cases involving alleged visa fraud, false statements, tax violations and money laundering linked to commercial maternity arrangements.
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