The Journal. · The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

Fertility Inc.: When the Surrogate Gets Left With the Bill

March 6, 2026·30 min·3 clips

Nia describes being called a baby killer by the intended parents after only one embryo took.

The story starts with a yes. Nia Trent-Wilson knows what it is like when people find out she has carried children for other families. She lives in Houston, has a 14-year-old son, and has been through surrogacy more than once. Her first match is the version people like to imagine. The intended parents came to appointments, helped after a complicated C-section, and stayed close enough that she still goes to birthday parties. That experience gave her a clear idea of what care could look like in a surrogacy arrangement. The later case did not feel like that. The reporter says records Nia shared, plus repeated conversations, suggested Ricky and Jason were looking into whether she had followed the contract. The issue was breach, and that changes the feel of the story. It sounds less like a health check and more like a search for a way to say she had failed. Nia began keeping track. She was asked to take drug tests more than once, and the account here says every test came back negative. Then LabCorp came in. Someone called her medical provider, said they were from a doctor's office, used the name Gregory Lewis, and asked the provider to check her. Nia recorded her own call and learned the caller had given an account number. That made the whole thing feel more serious. The name was not random. Gregory Lewis was the notary on Nia's surrogacy contract, and the address given to the provider was tied to intended parent Jason St. Floor. Then it reached her home. A social worker came after a report that Nia was using drugs, which she denies and says led nowhere. By then her fear was plain: allegations she linked to St. Floor and Scott might put her own child at risk while she was carrying theirs.

As heard by us

A focused look at how surrogacy's business risks can fall hardest on the person carrying the pregnancy.

Surrogacy lands as a business story with personal risk in this episode, centered on Nia Trent-Wilson, a Houston surrogate whose first arrangement was unusually supportive before a later one grew adversarial.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You think surrogacy ends at delivery. Nia Trent-Wilson's story shows how complicated it can get after someone says yes to carrying a child for someone else.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Journal.