HB 51, Utah: Loose Adoptions Laws Now Tightening

HB 51 can be seen here.

“In Utah, adoption laws are lax, so much so that the state has become known as the home of adoption tourism.“

” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints’ Family Services branch… offered addiction and mental health resources to families in need. It also operated a now‑defunct adoption agency.”

HB 51 “would make sweeping changes to Utah’s current code around adoption. One key subsection would regulate how agencies give money to birth mothers. Right now, they can pay out lump sums labeled as “postpartum care.”

In the view of Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, co-founder of Utah Adoption Rights, an advocacy group that lobbies for better laws for birth mothers and adoptive parents, these lump sums are nefarious because they come with strings attached.

“It’s conditional on you signing away your parental rights,” she said. “It’s conditional on you cooperating with this adoption. And it’s certainly being used as an inducement, which is in violation of state law.”

Another complicating factor is addiction. Vander Vliet Ranyard said that roughly 50% of women she sees being transported to Utah by adoption agencies have a history of substance abuse.

To her, the situation is self‑explanatory. Giving a birth mother with a history of addiction a large sum of money that can run as high as $6,000 is like “holding that carrot in front of her face.”

“I think it’s directly in conflict with what the intention of social work is supposed to be,” she said.

Tara Romney Barber is the adoption and clinical programs director at the Children’s Service Society of Utah, an adoption nonprofit in favor of the bill. She said she’s sick and tired of Utah’s loose laws playing into the hands of bad actors, and that stories of women receiving envelopes of cash at the end of their placement are common.

“I don’t see how that amount of money, which is more than some women will see in a whole year, especially if they’re not employed, isn’t coercive,” Romney Barber said.

Both Romney Barber and Vander Vliet Ranyard want social work to be a mandatory priority for all adoption agencies in Utah.”[Isn’t that then case, already? ]

“Another part of Hall’s bill would give birth mothers more time to change their minds. Right now, Utah is one of the only states in the U.S. that has no revocation period to reconsider adoption. Hall’s bill would extend that to 72 hours after the individual gives their consent or relinquishes their child. [Good!]”

“When Hall’s adoption reforms passed through the House Judiciary committee with a unanimous vote and received a favorable recommendation, [birthmother] Mayoral almost cried. ”

Bill tightening Utah’s loose adoption laws clears its first hurdle
[KUER 1/27/26 by Hugo Rikard-Bell]

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