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Birth Tourism - Should Physicians be Disciplined?

If you've never heard of "Birth Tourism", you would be like me a month ago. But my interest was piqued when my niece who lives in China contacted me and asked for a review of the doctors and hospitals she was considering for the purpose of birth tourism. After doing some research, I kindly declined to comment. But I could not stop thinking about it and the doctors involved.

Birth tourism refers to the act of traveling to another country (usually a more affluent one) for the purpose of giving birth to an “anchor baby." US and Canada are popular destinations given their jus soli policy toward citizenship - you are considered an American citizen if you are born on American soil no matter…

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 Though Rare, Birth Tourism to the United States Sparks Outsized Concern

Birth tourism, a phrase describing the rare practice of foreign nationals traveling to the United States for the sole purpose of giving birth so their baby can automatically become a U.S. citizen, has garnered outsized public attention and legal scrutiny in the debate over ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.

Articles of Interest

What Do We Know About ‘Birth Tourism’?

“Birth tourism probably is the best case against automatic birthright citizenship,” Camarota said. “Most Americans, say, ‘Yeah, that doesn’t seem right at all.’ And I think that that’s probably where they should start.”

What Is Birth Tourism and How Common Is It?

Birth tourism “erodes our government’s ability to control who attains U.S. citizenship,” said Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “It’s fundamental to sovereignty — being able to determine who is a citizen.”

A Plan to Address Birth Tourism

Consular officers want to prevent birth tourism, but are left powerless because of an inadequate congressional mandate to take on this problem.

Birth tourism: the 30 best countries that give citizenship by birth

The process of “jus soli” is generally available to anyone who has a child on the territory of a birth tourism country, even if they are a temporary resident or (as is often bemoaned in the United States) an illegal alien. The only people whose children don’t qualify for instant citizenship are diplomats.

Birthright Citizenship for the Children of Visitors: A National Security Problem in the Making?

Whatever the number of birthright children born each year of undocumented immigrants, border crossers, and nonimmigrant visitors, we must ask ourselves: is it reasonable to assume that those individuals will share our societal values or our worldview, or appreciate the accident of birth that accords them the right to come and go through American borders and among American communities as they choose, as “one of us”? Or is doing so an example of American hubris and naiveté of the worst sort, one which may come back to bite us in the long run?

Chinese Maternity Tourists and the Business of Being Born American

There are many reasons to have a baby in the U.S. The air is cleaner, the doctors generally are better, and pain medication is dispensed more readily. Couples can evade China’s one-child policy, because they don’t have to register the birth with local authorities.

People are freaking out over ‘birth tourism’ in Canada

There's panic once again in British Columbia over a rise in "birth tourism" in the province, as locals accuse Chinese mothers of delivering their babies on Canadian soil in order to get citizenship. The issue routinely makes news in the western province every few months, and now a new petition, filed in Parliament, is calling on the Canadian government to stop granting citizenship to so-called "anchor babies" unless one of their parents holds Canadian citizenship.

The Birth Tourism Bogeyman

Inhibiting travel and commerce—not to mention making consular interviews deeply intrusive on a gendered basis—by imposing restrictions on pregnant women is an alarmist reaction to a small issue.

Two New Takes on "Birth Tourism"

What we have learned recently is that Canada is understandably worried about the practice of birth tourism and may do something about it, while a distant U.S. territory, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), egged on by Mainland policies, seemingly encourages it.

Welcome to Maternity Hotel California

A full-service stay inside the Chinese birth tourism boom.

What is Birth Tourism?

When a pregnant mother comes from another country with the intent to give birth in the U.S. in order to secure U.S. citizenship for her future child, it is popularly known as "birth tourism." These mothers enter the U.S under the guise of traveling for pleasure, but they have the sole intent of giving birth while they are here. Many birth tourists come from China, Russia, and Nigeria, as well as other places with economic and political instability. Among some of the various reasons they come, most are motivated by the availability for better health care and the hope that one day their child can be their ticket to the "American Dream."

Where ‘Anchor Babies’ Can Be a Lucrative Business

Thousands of wealthy foreign women, mostly Chinese, come to America each year for the express purpose of having babies on U.S. soil. The women arrive on tourist visas and typically go home with the baby after several months.