By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Dozens of gay Australian couples are coming to the United States to complete their dreams of having a family — and they are paying a hefty price for it.
More than 100 couples have paid $80,000 apiece to have babies using rent-a-womb women, the Australian Associated Press reported.
The practice, dubbed as "one-stop baby shopping," is becoming very popular among professional gay men in Sydney and Melbourne, according to The Fertility Institutes based in Los Angeles.
"We've seen more than 125 gay couples from Australia who have gone home with a baby," said the clinic's medical director, Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, in a news release.
"We're up to six to eight a month now, which is a four-fold increase over two years ago. That makes Australia one of our biggest markets, neck and neck with Britain," Steinberg said.
The program is the first dedicated to two-father families and allows gay men to pay for surrogate children, a practice that is illegal in Australia, the AAP reported.
Surrogacy laws in Australia vary from state to state, with altruistic surrogacy, meaning the woman who carries the child is not paid, allowed in some jurisdictions, according to the report.
Britain, Canada and many Asian nations are similar, while the U.S. has legalized paid surrogacy for all couples.
Click here to read more on this story from AAP.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/rent-a-womb-business-booming-in-the-u-s-thanks-to-gay-australians