For some families, the dream of adoption is being hijacked by high-priced “baby brokers” who operate in the shadows of a legal vacuum. In 2024, the alarm was sounded on 31 of these nefarious actors, yet the hard truth remains — there is no federal law to hold them accountable.
2026 must be the year lawmakers finally clean this up.
Simply, lawmakers should pass the newly introduced Adoption Deserves Oversight, Protection, and Transparency Act (“The ADOPT Act”) and add basic guardrails to support private domestic infant adoption and protect expectant mothers from predatory, for-profit baby brokers.
Private infant adoption depends on trust. An expectant mother must trust that the people advising her will tell the truth about her options and respect her decisions. Prospective adoptive parents must trust that those professionals will follow the law and put the child’s best interests ahead of their own bottom line.
In a healthy system, this trust is anchored by licensure and the strict oversight of state licensing boards, departments of human services, and state bars. These governing bodies ensure that providers behave ethically, undergo audits, and maintain financial transparency. If a licensed provider does not meet these standards, they could lose credentials or face hefty fines.
Unlicensed intermediaries, often operating only online, undercut that trust. These entities aggressively and in some cases misleadingly advertise on social media; collect hefty fees way out of line with responsible providers; and go about the process of matching expectant parents with prospective adoptive parents without operating as licensed agencies or attorneys.
The ADOPT Act targets this problem. The bill would make it a federal crime for unlicensed actors acting across state lines to provide paid adoption intermediary services, place paid adoption advertisements, or channel large payments to or for birth mothers outside of the oversight of a licensed agency or attorney.
In plain terms, if you act as a paid matchmaker between birth parents and adoptive parents, or if you buy ads promising to do so, you must be accountable to state licensing boards. If you provide financial support to an expectant mother for the purpose of adoption, those funds must flow through a licensed provider in her state. The ADOPT Act does not change who may adopt, which expenses a state allows, or how courts finalize an adoption. It simply sets a federal floor for honesty and transparency when money and advertising cross state lines.
In September 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent warning letters to adoption-related businesses that market their ability to “match” expectant parents and adoptive families, warning that some of them inflated success rates and timelines, hid negative reviews, and presented themselves as “adoption agencies” without holding licenses to place children. The FTC cited potentially deceptive advertising under the FTC Act and possible violations of the Consumer Review Fairness Act, which bars companies from using contracts to silence honest reviews.
Warning letters, however, cannot solve the problem on their own. They put businesses on notice, but they do not answer a fundamental question: Who should be allowed to operate as a paid intermediary in private infant adoption? The ADOPT Act answers that question with a bright-line rule: Only public or private licensed child-placing agencies and licensed attorneys may serve in that role or place paid adoption ads, and only a licensed agency or attorney in the expectant parent’s state may provide significant financial support connected to an adoption.
Those guardrails make it harder for bad actors to use glossy marketing, vague promises of “financial help,” or one-sided contracts to lure vulnerable people into expensive, risky arrangements. They protect expectant mothers who want clear information and ethical support. They protect adoptive families who save for years, only to discover that an unregulated middleman never had the legal ability to complete the placement they promised.
While we often highlight the joy of families formed through adoption, we must also recognize the responsibility to protect everyone involved in the process. Right now, the federal government sends mixed signals: One agency warns about deceptive intermediaries, while Congress has yet to give federal prosecutors a clear tool to shut down the worst actors.
The ADOPT Act aligns those signals. It backs up the FTC’s warnings with concrete consequences, protects families who play by the rules, and helps ensure that when Americans see an adoption ad online, they can trust that a licensed, accountable professional stands behind it. As members of Congress pose for photos at courthouse adoption days, they should also act. Moving the ADOPT Act out of committee and onto the floor would send a simple message: In the United States, infant adoption should build families, not business models that thrive on confusion and coercion.
