Theresa Erickson, a San Diego adoption attorney and a one-time San Diego LGBT Weekly columnist, has pled guilty in federal court last week to what officials are calling a “baby-selling ring.”
With the help of two other people that worked in this alleged ring who have also pled guilty, Erickson hired San Diego women to act as surrogate parents, travel to the Ukraine, be impregnated with embryos created from sperm and eggs donors, and then return to the U.S. during the second trimester of pregnancy. According to court documents, Erickson would then find parents for the unborn children, telling couples that the original parents backed out of the adoption. Erickson charged up to $150,000 per child.
“These were people who desperately wanted babies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason A. Forge told the Los Angeles Times.
A dozen families were listed in the case. None of the new parents were aware of the illegal nature of the adoption; none of the children will be removed from their new homes.
In the U.S., doctors are required to confirm a surrogacy agreement has been established before the procedure can be done, according to the Legal Broadcast Network, where Erickson worked as a commentator.
Erickson has been featured several times in San Diego LGBT Weekly, writing an adoption column for gay parents. She was the managing partner of Erickson Law and the founder and chair of Conceptual Donation Center. The newspaper has had no communication with Erickson since December 2010.
She will be sentenced Oct. 28.
