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Oh, Baby Baby

Continued from page 6

Published on June 07, 2007

Eula McNulty, 24 at the time, told reporters she wanted to put her seven-month-old son up for adoption, and responded to the Adoption Center of Choice's Yellow Page ad. The agency paid for her flight to its office in Orem, Utah. After McNulty approved of the adoptive couple the agency introduced her to, Adoption Center for Choice gave her $1,300 in cash and sent her back to Chicago. What should have been a smooth exchange of an envelope stuffed with cash for a kid gained notoriety when McNulty changed her mind, but was unable to undo the adoption. (The deadline for a mother and/or father to revoke consent for adoption varies among states, with the most common [15 states] being 72 hours. In Utah, it is 36 hours).

  • Gandee Vasan
    There's a lot of money to be made in adoptions. Jennalee Ryan moved to Texas to continue doing that.
    There's a lot of money to be made in adoptions. Jennalee Ryan moved to Texas to continue doing that.
  • Mark Greenberg
    Jennalee Ryan says she has a need to rescue children.
    Jennalee Ryan says she has a need to rescue children.

Subject(s):

lax adoption regulations, baby-brokers, Abraham Center of Life
This brings us back to James C. Webb, the aforementioned insurance agent. Although Adoption Center of Choice is located outside Salt Lake City, it was created by and is owned by Webb. Webb's business address is also listed as the address for the Abraham Center of Life's California office, incorporated in February 2007.

Before his multifaceted insurance office was either of those entities, it was home base for A Heart of Gold Adoptions, incorporated in California in 1995 and since dissolved. A 2003 Yellow Pages ad for A Heart of Gold Adoptions lists a Web site and toll-free number that directs people to Adoption Center of Choice, never identified in the ad. While Adoption Center of Choice's Web site features people who are supposedly on staff, no names are mentioned anywhere. But a quick check of state records lists the executive director as GiGi Allred and the owner as James C. Webb.

Webb did not return calls, and Allred wasn't much help. When asked why an ad for something called A Heart of Gold Adoptions directs people to Adoption Center of Choice, Allred said she had no comment. She also had no comment when asked if Webb was in any way affiliated with her agency.

Back to Jennalee Ryan: While she explicitly stated she was strictly an advertiser for Abraham Center of Life, she would not name the person she said actually runs the company.

The only thing she said was, "This particular person also happens to own a licensed adoption agency." She would not name the agency, but she was quick to say it wasn't called the Abraham Center of Life. "He went and registered a whole new company name...He's actually put together a surrogacy, egg donor and embryo donation [service]."

Ryan reiterates: "I advertise. I get names and phone numbers and I hand them to him and I get paid a monthly fee for my advertising."

So, just to make this absolutely clear: Ryan, who advertises for something called the Abraham Center of Life, is paid to refer birth mothers and adoptive parents to a licensed adoption agency that is definitely not the same Abraham Center of Life in California that shares an address with the former A Heart of Gold Adoptions and the current Adoption Center of Choice, which battled adoption consent laws in Utah and reportedly paid a mother $1,300 in cash for her baby.

Got it?

Ryan says she has a list of 2,000 people looking to snag a frozen embryo, not to mention those seeking traditional adoption services. She no longer advertises in the Yellow Pages, sticking instead to her Web site's traffic and word of mouth in online adoption forums.

After speaking to the Press, Ryan tweaked the Abraham Center's Web site, removing among other things a discussion of how much Abagails Silver Spoon charges for adoption. When the Press spoke with Ryan, the site stated that "Abagails Silver Spoon Adoptions, Inc., charges a flat fee of $8,300. This is for a two-year advertising contract. In addition, you will be required to pay a home study fee [of] $1,500–$2,500..."

She also removed a section dealing with the cost to purchase eggs, which began with a $4,800 base fee to help "advertising, expense account management [and] travel coordination," among other things.

But those changes weren't as radical as the ones Ryan originally intended when she proposed the Press drop the story on her and instead have a reporter write a minibiography on the Abraham Center's site and then cowrite a book about her life and the trouble with American adoption services in general.

Writing the definitive biography on Ryan would be quite an undertaking. If the book began with the way Ryan usually likes her story told, the challenge would arise from the very beginning.

"First, let me introduce myself," it would start. "My name is..."

And then what?

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