In a move to reel in the nation's exploding commercial surrogacy industry, India has proposed a measure that excludes same-sex couples.

India's foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, told reporters on Wednesday that the Surrogacy Regulation Bill 2016 had cleared the Union Cabinet and that the draft bill would be introduced in Parliament in the next session.

Swaraj said that the law was needed to protect poor women from being exploited.

“Many so-called childless couples were misusing the wombs of poor women,” she said. “It was a matter of great worry, because there were instances where a girl child or a disabled child have been abandoned soon after birth.”

Swaraj said that India has about 2,000 surrogacy clinics. The Washington Post estimated India's commercial surrogacy industry at $400 million.

The bill proposes limiting surrogacy to childless, married couples who have waited five years and can prove that they are medically unable to bear their own children. Foreigners, single parents and gay couples would be excluded under the new rules.

Ranjana Kumari of the Center for Social Research told the Post that an outright ban would “just drive the whole business underground.” Kumari said that they lobbied for greater protections for surrogate mothers and “certain responsibilities put on doctors.”