AI-generated summary, reviewed by Better Utah staff.

Utah's adoption law gets a significant overhaul under this bill, which tightens oversight of private child-placing agencies (the organizations that help connect birth parents with adoptive families), expands protections for birth parents, and caps certain financial payments. Starting in 2027, private child-placing agencies must be nonprofit organizations to receive or renew a state license. The bill limits what agencies can pay on a birth parent's behalf — up to $8,000 in living expenses and no more than $200 per week in a direct allowance — and explicitly prohibits coercive practices such as threatening a birth parent who chooses to keep their child or promising financial benefits in exchange for relinquishment. Birth parents gain a new 72-hour window to revoke their consent for any reason, may also revoke if a court finds their consent was obtained through fraud or undue influence, and must be offered — at the agency's or adoptive parents' expense — up to six sessions with a licensed mental health professional of their own choosing, with the covered cost ceiling raised from $400 to $800. Agencies must also post any regulatory warnings or violations on their websites and report detailed financial data to the state for each birth parent they serve. Birth parents who are brought to Utah from out of state are most directly affected by the new transportation rules, which prohibit agencies from transporting mothers who are 36 or more weeks pregnant or under 18, and require that any birth mother who decides not to place her child be returned home at the agency's expense using equivalent transportation.