LAYTON, Utah — It’s easier to complete an adoption here than in almost any other state.
A woman who gives birth in Utah can sometimes consent to an adoption with little or no input from the father and within 24 hours of delivery. Then, the adoption can be finalized in as few as three months – one of the fastest periods in the country. Once complete, it’s irrevocable, even in cases where consent was obtained through fraud.
“Utah is what we would call an ‘adoption-friendly’ state,” said Tara Romney Barber, the adoption and clinical programs director of the Children’s Service Society of Utah, in a recent interview with FOX 13 News.
But those same relaxed regulations, she said, “can also create a climate that makes it really ripe for fraud, coercion and some of the negative things."
As competition for adoption has grown in recent years, reform advocates argue that's exactly what they're seeing, as they say some Utah agencies are using the state’s laws to recruit vulnerable women from other states for the sole purpose of placing a child for adoption.
"The women will be brought in from Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, California, and the [adoptive] families will be brought in also from all kinds of states all over the country,” said Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, a birth mother who works nationally on adoption issues and is a co-founder of the group Utah Adoption Rights. “And Utah will serve as a stopping point for these adoptions.”
On their websites, some adoption agencies are offering to pay for pregnant women’s travel expenses to get them to Utah. Once they’re here, they promise to cover the cost of “safe and cozy housing,” food and clothing and pregnancy-related medical expenses.
Adoption reform advocates say they’ve even heard of these agencies providing some women with cash payments after an adoption is complete.
“It does raise the question of, ‘Are we paying women for their babies?’” Ranyard said. “And if we are, then we have a huge problem.”
Some other states put a cap on how much money adoption providers can dispense to birth mothers. But Utah has few guardrails around such payments, other than the requirement that the expenses be “reasonable.”
"’Reasonable’ to me doesn’t sound like $20,000 to $30,000 in living expenses,” Ranyard argues.
These cash payments to mothers, advocates for reform argue, test that ill-defined boundary and could be seen as an inducement to place a baby for adoption, which state law prohibits.
“It’s a very fine line between human trafficking and a healthy adoption,” Romney Barber said. “And those cash payouts walk that line very closely.”
Nationally, Utah’s loose regulations and online recruitment practices have led some to deem the state the “wild west for adoption,” she added.
No other state in the country, reform advocates say, is recruiting and transporting women from other states to the same degree Utah is.
“Utah adoption currently has the worst reputation in the United States,” said Ranyard, the director of advocacy and policy at Ethical Family Building. “There are other states that also have bad reputations. They don’t even come close. Right now, it is a national sore.”
Policymakers have recently taken note, opening a bill file earlier this summer with plans to consider a range of changes to Utah’s adoption regulations during next year’s legislative session.
Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, brought the issue before the Legislature’s Judiciary Interim Committee after hearing concerns from constituents who work in the adoption space. And while she’s not sure what changes lawmakers may ultimately pursue, she said “nothing’s off the table right now.”
“We're kind of just looking at all the different policy areas where we can make a difference,” she said in an interview, to “make sure that while being adoption friendly, we're doing it in the most ethical possible way.”
'Children are not commodities’
When Valarie Mayoral was a high school senior in 1996, she drove from Wyoming to Utah in the final weeks of her pregnancy to give birth and place her baby for adoption.
Her family had connected with an adoption agency in Utah through her church, which helped coordinate housing with a host family. When it was time to deliver the baby, she said, she “walked into that hospital room in labor alone."
Looking back now, she sees how vulnerable she was – especially being so young and away from her support system.
“You’re going to a whole different doctor; you don’t have that relationship,” said Mayoral, who now volunteers with Utah Adoption Rights. “You don’t have your friends. You’re living with somebody you don’t even [know]. You have to trust everybody.”
Mayoral’s story shows that women have long been coming here from other states to place their babies for adoption. But advocates say internet search advertisements have changed the industry in recent years, making it easier for agencies to recruit women to the state and increasing the number who are making the journey here.
“The top searches where we find these agencies popping up," Ranyard said, include: “Give baby up for adoption,” "Get paid for adoption,” "Pregnant need help with adoption,” and “Pregnant need housing."
If a woman clicks on a sponsored advertisement from a Utah adoption agency and decides to fill out a contact form, “it feels almost immediate where you’re going to get a call, a text, an email from one of the workers of the agency,” she added.
WATCH: Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard explains who’s being recruited to utah from other states for an adoption (adoption web vid 2):
During those conversations, the agencies say, “‘we’ll take care of all your fees, we’ll put you up in housing, you’ll get a stipend for your living expenses,’” Romney Barber said. “And this can be really enticing to people who are struggling with poverty or other issues.”
Advocates say many of the women who end up in Utah are vulnerable. Several of the agencies’ websites speak directly to women experiencing homelessness or who have “not been able to remain clean” from drug use “during their pregnancy.” In that case, one agency promises that there are always families “willing and able to adopt these babies.”
While a mother can't make a legally binding decision about adoption until after the birth, Ranyard argues that transporting women to Utah is a way to prematurely solidify their decision making.
"Because they’ve already left,” she said. “They’ve already come here. And so their commitment level to doing an adoption here is already high.”
And while Utah law says that any money given to a birth mother is considered an act of charity, reform advocates worry uncapped payments can create financial dependency on an agency or leave a woman feeling coerced into placing her baby for adoption.
“A lot of women who are flown here from other states don’t always know what their rights are in Utah and may feel like, ‘if I don’t place my child for adoption or follow through on my plan for adoption, or if I change my mind, they’re going to make me pay that money back,’” Romney Barber said.
That’s “not in alignment with what Utah statute currently is,” she added. “But certainly I think does impact somebody who doesn’t know the law, who is from another state and doesn’t have a support system maybe to educate them on what their rights are.”
Women from other states sometimes contact the Children’s Service Society of Utah about an adoption, Romney Barber said. When that happens, she said she works to connect them to an agency in their own state, “so they can stay with their support system” while still getting the “care that they deserve and need.”
“They don’t need to come to Utah to access those services,” she argued.
Not recruiting women from other states also allows the agency to keep adoption costs down, she said. The Children's Bureau estimates the average cost for an adoption is between $20,000 and $45,000. But reform advocates say Utah agencies that are flying women in and providing them housing are charging more like $80,000 or $90,000 – among the highest costs in the nation.
"Children are not commodities,” Ranyard said. “And we get into a very slippery slope when we start making room for that kind of thing.”
The adoption agencies, Ranyard said, are the ones primarily profiting off these increased costs, while the birth mothers go back to their home states in “the same or worse circumstances” as before they left.
WATCH: Tara Romney Barber discuss how recruitment of out-of-state birth moms can increase the costs for adoptions
'Prevent people from being exploited’
On a recent Saturday afternoon, a group of volunteers with Utah Adoption Rights gathered outside a Layton apartment complex that they’ve heard houses women from other states during their pregnancies.
Over the next few hours, they spread brightly colored flyers on doorknobs across the complex, in hopes of reaching these women with information about their adoption rights in Utah.
“I think the expectation is that the adoption professionals they’re working with would tell them these things,” said Ashley Mitchell, a birth mother and co-founder of Utah Adoption Rights. “But in our experience, they are not getting all the information they need to make an informed decision.”
The group — which Mitchell and Ranyard started last year — also offers detailed information about the state’s laws on its website, as well as text and email scripts for women to use with their agencies if they change their minds about an adoption.
Mitchell said adoption is the right choice for some, and the group’s goal isn’t to change anyone’s mind. But she said it’s important that the women who come here to give birth make their decision with all the information.
“I believe that adoption should exist,” she said in an interview outside the apartment complex. “I believe that if it feels right for the women, that they absolutely should make those choices. But they need to know what they’re signing. They have the right to understand the long-term consequences of those choices, because adoption really is for life.”
WATCH: Ashley Mitchell and Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard talk about the goals behind Utah adoption rights
As lawmakers eye possible changes to the state’s adoption laws, the group is also advocating for reforms they think would help protect women considering adoption and discourage adoption tourism here.
Utah Adoption Rights is calling for a 72-hour waiting period after birth before a woman can consent to an adoption, as well as the creation of a 72-hour revocation period during which she can change her mind.
They want the state to strike the section of law that does not allow revocation of an adoption even in cases of fraud. They want lawmakers to require all adoption agencies to be licensed as non-profits. And they want greater restrictions around payments to birth mothers, possibly through a cap on the dollar amount that can be disbursed for living expenses.
If nothing else, Romney Barber said she believes that more guardrails around payments to birth mothers would make the biggest impact on recruiting practices in Utah.
“I think lawmakers have the opportunity to create an environment and a reputation where we’re not only adoption-friendly and family-friendly,” she said, “but we really have protections in place to prevent people from being exploited throughout what can be a really vulnerable process."
As they wait to see what the Legislature will do next year, Mitchell and Ranyard said their work to educate women — and the rest of the state — about Utah’s current adoption practices will continue.
“I think it’s very important that our local community and the state of Utah cares about how these adoptions are happening and what that’s going to look like,” Mitchell said. “Because at the end of the day it’s, ‘Did we walk alongside them in our own state, whether they stayed here or not?’ And I think that matters.”