For years, Utah has been a hub of the private adoption industry, drawing pregnant women and prospective adoptive parents from across the country thanks to its notoriously permissive laws and thriving network of agencies. But the practice can become exploitative, as I reported in an investigation for Mother Jones and PBS News Hour last year, with some expecting mothers feeling pressured or rushed into relinquishing their babies after being enticed to Utah by promises of cash stipends and free lodging.
Now, Utah lawmakers are dramatically reining in how adoption agencies operate in the state. The state legislature passed a bill late last month with a veto-proof supermajority that will increase oversight and transparency of the industry and introduce protections for birth parents. Gov. Spencer Cox is expected to sign the legislation into law this month.
“We need to take care of them, and it didn’t seem like these women were being taken care of.”
The legislation introduces a 72-hour revocation period after adoption papers are signed, during which a birth mother can change her mind for any reason; prohibits agencies from advertising financial incentives to expecting mothers; bans lump sums paid out to birth mothers; requires adoption agencies be registered as nonprofits by 2027; and creates a consortium of adoption agencies, run by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, to oversee the implementation of the new guardrails and collect data on the industry.
Republican state Rep. Katy Hall, the bill’s sponsor and a nurse who worked for years in postpartum care, knows that birth mothers are in a fragile place. “We need to take care of them, and it didn’t seem like these women were being taken care of,” she says.
She’s not sure she was aware of the state’s reputation as a hub for adoption tourism until watching the News Hour investigation. The video tells the story of Tia Goins, a mother who was flown from Detroit to Salt Lake City by adoption agency Brighter Adoptions and, she says, pressured to give up her child. Only after she relinquished her child did agency owner Sandi Quick coordinate Goins’ flight home. On the way to the airport, Quick—who now goes by Sandi Benson—gave Goins $4,000 in cash.
(Benson said last year that she had always centered the needs of birth mothers and that she ensures that mothers “fully understand the implications of adoption.” The adoptive mother said that Goins was a “willing and active participant” in the process.)
Adoption reform has historically been contentious in Utah, in part due to a strong adoption industry lobby. But a stream of investigative stories—The Cut, the Times of London, and the Salt Lake Tribune also published investigations into predatory practices in Utah—helped bring other adoption agencies to the table, says Hall. “I think as those other agencies saw the reputation of Utah possibly being damaged by those couple bad actors in the space, they were more willing to say, ‘Okay we see that something needs to change and we’re willing to do what that takes.’”
“The reality was there was a reputation to address,” says Democratic state Sen. Luz Escamilla, who has pushed for adoption reform for years. She notes that the state has been home to several high-profile adoption scandals over the years, including the case of Paul Petersen, the Arizona official who pleaded guilty in 2020 to human smuggling and other charges for operating a multi-state adoption scheme that brought in pregnant women from the Marshall Islands.
Brighter Adoptions, meanwhile, announced late last month that it was suddenly closing. “The legal landscape of adoption has changed significantly in the last year,” Benson wrote in an email to prospective adoptive families, “making advertising more difficult” and leading to “opposition in bringing moms to Utah.” (Benson didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.)
“I think I’m probably still a little bit in shock,” says Ashley Mitchell, cofounder of Utah Adoption Rights and a longtime advocate for adoption reform. “When we had that final vote go through the senate to pass, I just cried.” Mitchell says Utah will now be operating with similar legislation to other states. “I think it’s embarrassing,” she says, “that it’s taken so long and so many people have had to have been hurt.”
This post has been syndicated from Mother Jones, where it was published under this address.