[MamaS]

One of the previous posters said they paid the agency, not the birth mother. If the adoption fell through, the agency was 'on the hook' for the expenses. Okay, and when the second birth mother comes along, where does the agency get the money for her? By raising the fees for all the other prospective adoptive parents! That is one reason agencies charge in the five figures for a simple domestic adoption.
If you go through a lawyer, you don't have even that shield. There have been people who posted here who have been through three or more failed attempts, have paid living and maternity experiences for three women, and were left with no baby and not enough money for another attempt.
We arrest people who buy drugs and we also arrest people who sell drugs. If we are going to make it illegal to pay birth mother expenses we should also make it illegal for the birth mother to ask for or accept money. But as long as a pregnant woman can say: I want you to have this baby, but I don't have the money to eat nutritional foods and I don't have the money to go to the doctor, etc. the PAPs are going to fork it over for the sake of the baby. Talk about coercion -- that is coercion!