Why Lady Gaga's Surrogacy Story Barely Raised an Eyebrow in America

A Tale of Two Cultures

On September 12, it became public — thanks to paparazzi photos — that Lady Gaga had become a mother to her first child. Days later, it emerged the child was born via a surrogate. Then came Lena Dunham, who announced in a Vogue essay on September 16 that she had become a mother to her first daughter through surrogacy. Two high-profile feminist icons. Two surrogacy announcements. Two very different reactions depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on.

While the news about Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham sparked controversy in Spain, in the United States there was virtually no moral debate whatsoever regarding their decision. That silence — or rather, that collective shrug — is itself a story worth examining. Why does a practice that ignites fierce ethical debate in Europe barely register as controversial in America?

The American Comfort With Capitalism

The practice is legal and widespread in the United States, while in Spain it is not only illegal but has been defined as a form of violence against women since 2022. In Europe, commercial surrogacy is not legal either; altruistic surrogacy exists only in a few countries, such as Greece, Cyprus, and Portugal. That legal divide maps almost perfectly onto a cultural one.

"We Americans are more comfortable with the market and pure, unadulterated capitalism," observes Professor Arthur Caplan, a specialist in public health and bioethics and professor emeritus at New York University. That comfort extends to reproductive arrangements. In 2024, 11,821 embryos were transferred to surrogates in American clinics associated with the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, up from 8,461 three years earlier. Most surrogacy in America today is commercial — meaning the carrier is paid — and gestational, meaning the carrier has no genetic relationship to the child.

The internet went wild with excitement earlier this month after news broke that Lady Gaga welcomed her first child with her fiancé, venture capitalist Michael Polansky. Their daughter, Rose Bean Polansky, was reportedly born on June 9. TMZ reported that the couple used a surrogate, proposing that the pop star's lifelong struggle with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, may have spurred the decision.

A Patchwork of Laws — and a Steep Price Tag

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations that can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a parent at birth. As of 2026, surrogacy agreements are enforceable in 31 states (with some limitations), void in one, and unregulated in 17. That legal inconsistency creates real risks — for surrogates, for intended parents, and for the children born from these arrangements.

Surrogacy in the U.S. can cost $100,000 to $250,000 or more, and high costs and limited insurance coverage make it inaccessible for many people seeking to build families. A New Yorker investigation pointed out the lack of regulation to which surrogacy agencies are subjected, noting that no specific qualifications are required for the intimate task of bringing strangers together to create a new life — with only one state, New York, requiring a specialized license.

The Feminist Fault Line

Both Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham are supposedly aligned with feminist ideas, yet chose a path condemned by a large part of the women's rights movement. Although they are not the first celebrities to opt for surrogacy, they are two of the most harshly criticized for doing so. Many of their followers have understood the use of another woman's body to gestate — a process usually accompanied by a financial transaction — as a sign of vital contradiction.

Critics argue the push to limit commercial surrogacy conveniently supports the conservative agenda to deny gay couples the ability to have children and enforce the "traditional" family ideal. Opponents counter that outlawing it would only drive more business to the under-regulated international surrogacy industry that really does exploit women in the Global South. It's a debate with no clean villains and no easy answers.

What the Lady Gaga and Lena Dunham moment has made undeniable is that surrogacy is no longer a fringe conversation. The global surrogacy market is estimated at nearly $29 billion in 2026, up from $23.66 billion just a year ago. As the industry grows and more celebrities speak openly about their paths to parenthood, the ethical questions will only grow louder — even in a country that, so far, has largely chosen not to ask them.