I am a constituent writing to urge your support for HB 2123. This bill adds critical safeguards for Pennsylvanians pursuing private domestic adoption by prohibiting unlicensed adoption intermediaries and ensuring that the adoption professionals operating in PA are licensed here.
Unlicensed, for-profit middlemen currently operate across state lines, charging high fees to match pregnant mothers with adoptive families without meaningful oversight, which can deprive mothers of local support and expose adoptive families to deception and financial exploitation. Pennsylvania is currently one of two states that expressly permit this in domestic adoption, leaving residents vulnerable to bad actors with no safeguards.
These bad practices have exponentially increased the cost of private adoption across the country, commodifying children and making adoption transactional. HB 2123 would help prevent these abuses in Pennsylvania by limiting paid adoption advertising to providers who are licensed here in PA. Further, this bill would provide enhanced protections to ensure that all parties have access to separate legal representation and adoptive parents are adequately prepared through preadoption education. HB 2123 is an important step to make adoption a safer process for all in Pennsylvania.
Please support this crucial bill. Thank you.
