Jamie Chung Hiring Surrogate to Carry Baby Amid Career Fears Sparks Debate

Is surrogacy a class issue and a symptom of a capitalist dystopia?

Actress Jamie Chung sparked a debate on Twitter after she revealed that she was "terrified" of becoming pregnant and how it would affect her acting career.

The Lovecraft Country star recently welcomed twin boys with her husband, Bryan Greenberg through a surrogate.

She rose to fame in 2004 on MTV's The Real World: San Diego and has since starred in shows Big Hero 6 and Dexter: New Blood.

"I was terrified of becoming pregnant," she said in an interview with Today. "I was terrified of putting my life on hold for two-plus years. In my industry, it feels like you're easily forgotten if you don't work within the next month of your last job. Things are so quickly paced in what we do."

The 39-year-old described her decision as a "compromise" and discussed how there is often a stigma around mothers who use surrogacy.

"I think there's a little bit of shame," she said. "It's still not a very common thing and we weren't ready for judgment. We really just did it to protect ourselves. We announced things when we were ready to."

Chung's revelation has indeed sparked a debate on social media with one viral tweet naming the actress and calling surrogacy an example of "dystopia."

"Rich women using poor women's wombs and bodies because they're worried about their career is more of a capitalist dystopia than the feminist win they think it is," reads the tweet by user @nienna121 that clocked up more than 163,000 likes at the time of writing.

This argument sparked a debate with many commenting to say that women who chose to become surrogates do so of their own free will and are paid well for it.

While others argue that women like Chung shouldn't have to choose between having a career and becoming pregnant.

"You say 'using' like it isn't with their full consent and with significant monetary compensation... This says way more about the entertainment industry's bias against pregnant and post-pregnancy people, I think," reads one response.

While another reads: "your logic makes no sense at all cuz you're assuming the surrogate is poor plus both parties have to consent to even go through with the surrogate process. y'all gave 50k likes to this nonsense."

Another added: "this is a bit of a reach?? is it superficial and a little shallow? absolutely. using a surrogate in her case sounded silly. but honestly, no one is forcing the surrogate to do anything?? and some surrogates actually like doing it. y'all are watching too much handmaid's tale."

Another response reads: "shut up omg. getting pregnant is such a traumatic thing and not everyone feels like going through that. y'all are acting like the surrogate isn't going to be treated with the utmost care & isn't going to be compensated. some women can't physically carry & HAVE to get a surrogate."

Chung in her Today interview touched on the idea that people may see her as "vain" for not wanting to get pregnant, but explained that it's not that simple.

"People probably think, 'Oh, she's so vain. She didn't want to get pregnant,' and it's much more complicated than that," she explained.

"For me, personally, and I will leave it at this, it's like, I worked my ass off my entire life to get where I am. I don't want to lose opportunities. I don't want to be resentful."

According to Resolve: The National Infertility Association (a nonprofit), surrogacy laws vary by state. "In some U.S. states, commercial surrogacy is illegal and/or the contracts that define the parentage of the intended parents are not recognized or enforceable.

Some states are "highly surrogacy friendly," such as in California, which "expressly permits surrogacy arrangements," according to the Legal Professional Group (LPG) of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASMR).

In other states, such as in New York, surrogacy contracts may be considered "void and unenforceable, as against public policy," but "uncompensated gestational surrogacy agreements [when the surrogate does not have a genetic tie to the child she's carrying], although unenforceable, are not illegal nor prohibited."