Support HB 51 - Salt Lake Trib Video, Ashley Mitchell "watch dog group" Utah Adoption Rights

Good Afternoon, Members of the Committee,

My name is Ashley Mitchell. I am a birth mother, a born-and-raised Utahn, and a Springville resident. I am also the co-founder of Utah Adoption Rights, a grassroots movement supporting positive adoption reform in our state. I am asking for your support in passing HB 51. 

At Utah Adoption Rights, we work to inform everyone in the adoption process of their rights. We have spoken to countless women who were enticed to travel to Utah by a handful of adoption agencies here, offering them financial inducements to relinquish their children for adoption. We worked with a Pennsylvania birth mom, who had a documented intellectual disability and was convinced to travel here based on the promise of receiving $9,000 in cash after signing papers. As soon as she left home for Utah, she lost her Pennsylvania housing. In the dead of winter in 2024, the agency evicted her from her apartment unit with no plan to help her secure safe housing back in her home state, and the $9,000 she relied on never appeared. 

We worked with a Florida mom who was only five months along, transported here by an agency, given $300 of cash for living expenses, and when she expressed that she was still trying to decide if adoption was right for her, the agency threatened to have her arrested for fraud, just for rightfully exploring her options and taking the time to thoughtfully consider her decision.

We spoke to a Texas mom as she rode a multi-day Greyhound bus home, just two days after giving birth and relinquishing her fourth child for adoption. Struggling with addiction and deep emotional pain, she told us she felt trapped in a cycle, turning to the same agency again and again for true support, yet this “support” for a mom who struggled with substance use was simply a wad of cash, when it should be social work, resourcing, referrals for addiction help and rehabilitation support, and mental health therapy. She wanted to break free, but the agency was only there to shuffle her through their machine. 

We have spoken to countless adoptive families who have paid out their entire life’s savings, taken out loans, gotten second mortgages on their homes, and relied on the empty promises of agencies whose focus on a child welfare issue has been transactional, left only to be devastated, defrauded, manipulated, or defeated by this process. 

Lastly, we have spoken to the adopted individuals who have grown up to learn that they were treated as commodities, while people in power turned a blind eye to children being bought and sold. We know, from speaking to all parties in this landscape, that birth parents don’t want to sell their children, adoptive parents don’t want to build their families by buying children, and children don’t want to be purchased. HB 51 is a critical first step to enhance protections for everyone affected by adoption in Utah. We can be pro-family, or we can be pro-transaction. We cannot be both. 

The language in this legislation has been carefully crafted after examining policies in other states, speaking with a range of stakeholders, and hearing from people who have been negatively impacted by Utah’s current adoption landscape. We are confident in the intended effects of this bill, and I urge you to make adoption safe in this state and support HB 51. Let’s pass this bill and protect mothers, adoptees, and families from further exploitation.

Thank you.