Pregnant, alone and bused to Utah:

How the state became a hub for out-of-state adoptions

Adoption agencies are paying for women to travel to Utah to give birth and place their children for adoption, often with families who also don’t live here.

“When you sign this, that’s it. There’s no changing your mind, period,” she remembered the attorney saying. “As soon as you sign this paper, you have terminated your parental rights and there was no taking it back. Not ever.”

A Guardian Angel Adoptions, she said, threatened to make her repay her medical bills if she didn’t go through with placing her son for adoption.

“Me giving birth to my baby,” she said, “was a transaction…..”

“I want to be very clear,” Mitchell told lawmakers during an October legislative hearing. The stories being told, each anecdote shared “is not an isolated incident.”

“This is not an exaggerated issue,” she said, “and we are not bitter birth moms.”

By Jessica Schreifels and Paighten Harkins SLTRIB