Questions like “can I get paid for adoption?” or “do I get money if I give up my baby for adoption?” aren’t uncommon. You don’t know what you don’t know, right?
After all, billboards across Texas blatantly solicit women willing to be surrogates for tens of thousands of dollars these days. These days, everyone seems to be struggling. especially since the Texas abortion restrictions. And even the State pays monthly “stipends” to people who foster children being adopted out.
So as appalling as it may be for someone to think adoption, too, is a paid gig, there’s plenty of reason for the adoption payment question to come up. Fathers and mothers who consider putting a baby or child up for adoption are usually in a tough place. Many can barely feed the children they already have, and most are living pretty close to the edge in one way or another. If you “have to” help somebody else fulfill their dreams by giving a baby up for adoption, it’s not a stretch to think somebody should be compensating you, as well.
We get it. (We do.) But we can’t, and here’s why…
Nobody Can Buy or Sell a Child for Adoption
The short answer is this: no, nobody can get paid for adoption nor profit off selling a child in ANY state in the US. The sale or purchase of a child for adoption is human trafficking, and that’s a clear violation of the babyselling statutes in Texas and every other state. In Texas, it’s a felony offense, for whomever sells a baby or child and also for whomever knowingly buys one.
Here’s the thing, though… black market adoption has gone on in this country for over a century, and gray market adoptions are an even bigger problem.
When Supply and Demand Endangers Kids
It’s no secret that all across America, there are far more people wanting to adopt infants than there are mothers willing to voluntarily surrender (place) babies for adoption. This can create a troubling imbalance of supply and demand. This has given rise to a growing number of unlicensed, unregulated baby brokers (or adoption facilitators, or baby bump hunters). They solicit pregnant women willing to give up a baby, then they effectively sell those referrals to hopeful adopters or sleazy adoption professionals willing to bend the rules in ways that put both moms and babies at risk. Gabrielle Glaser’s article in The Uncut paints a troubling picture of how this is happening: People Say You Sold Your Baby. She raises all the right questions, but what is still missing are solutions as to how Texas and other states will put a stop to this problem.
The Mystery of Maternity Support
In Texas, only licensed adoption agencies are allowed by Licensing to provide expectant mothers with “reasonable” financial assistance for living expenses during pregnancy and for a limited time after delivery and placement.
So what is reasonable? Rent, paid to a verified landlord upon presentation of a valid lease? Yes. Grocery and gas allowance, provided receipts are turned in? Check. A moderate clothing stipend, for which receipts are also required? Sure. Limited utilities are also in the range of possibility, if the bill is current, the amount due is verified and the payment is issued to the vendor. How about tuition or court payments? That’s a no-go. What about cable TV? Nope. How about car payments, new tires or repair bills? Not a chance.
Gifts of value (whether that means a designer dog and a year’s worth of dog food or a LV Neverfull tote or a Dell laptop or a used car or paid bail bonds or whatever) are also illegal in any adoption.
Paid for Adoption Means Sold by Someone
Nobody can profit from the placement of any baby or child for adoption; not the placing parent, not the adopter, and not whomever did the work to make an adoption actually happen. Both the State Bar and the Texas Department of Human Services are charged with monitoring adoption attorneys and adoption agencies to ensure that any fees paid for services rendered are reasonable and fair.
A problem arises, however, when unscrupulous adoption providers or private adoption parties create work-arounds, to get a placing parent a pay-off that may look legal but barely skims the ethical surface. Things like “lump-sum payments of maternity support” or cash that exchanges hands in a hospital after papers get signed effectively creates an illicit adoption. It leaves all the participants forever wondering if they really did the right thing or not. (Even worse, it leaves the adoptee wondering what they really got traded for?)
(Just ask Harley Matthews of Orange, Texas and Mitchell and Jerrica Jeane of Ohio how well their illegal adoption arrangement worked out for them? All were charged with babyselling, illegal adoption and insurance fraud after the Jeanes paid Mitchell $5k for her baby, delivered using falsely-obtained medical coverage. The baby just turned two, and is reportedly not in the care of any of them, fortunately.)
Do Adoption Right (or Not at All)
We know lots of birthparents who have needed help during pregnancy and to get back on their feet after adoption. We know plenty of adopting families who are happy to use an ethical adoption agency like Abrazo to provide for their needs. Nobody can take issue with an adoption done right.
Yet we have also heard from a number of birthparents who placed elsewhere and regret the way their child’s adoption got done, so we know the heavy toll that even a gray market adoption can take. The takeaway is this: no adoption should ever be all about money, and if it is, it probably shouldn’t happen.
There is, as of now, no federal law prohibiting the sale or purchase of a child, except as it relates to a sex crime, and this puts America’s young at the mercy of 50 different sets of state laws that do prohibit babyselling. In Texas, paying somebody or getting paid for adoption is against the law, so the takeaway is this: do adoption right or not at all… a child’s entire future depends upon it.
