Maricopa County, Ariz., Assessor Paul Petersen is accused of smuggling pregnant women from the Marshall Islands and paying them to give birth in the United States. In Arizona, Petersen has been indicted on theft, fraud and forgery charges for allegedly claiming pregnant women from the Marshall Islands were residents of Arizona in order to obtain medical care for them. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office hide caption
Empty baby beds stand in the maternity ward of a hospital (a spokesperson for the hospital asked that the hospital not be named). Six days after Farai Chideya took her adopted newborn child home from a hospital, she was forced to give him back to his birth mother. Sean Gallup/Getty Images hide caption
Jane Kemp and her son, Kieran, celebrate their first Hanukkah together. Leslie Edelman Kemp hide caption
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, pictured earlier this month, has settled a lawsuit by same-sex couples who argued their rights were violated by faith-based adoption agencies that don't want to work with gays and lesbians. Paul Sancya/AP hide caption
Pilar Navarro, now 68, has sought legal action against a Catholic hospital in Madrid where she claims a baby was secretly stolen from her in 1973. Here she is seen in a photo in 1974 holding a second baby daughter who was not taken from her. Courtesy of Pilar Navarro hide caption
These teenage brothers live in house #9 at the SOS Children's Village in Tela, Honduras. The goal isn't to get them adopted out but to create a family-like setting in the institution. Adriana Zehbrauskas for NPR hide caption
Nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, walk in annual Corpus Christi procession organized on the Feast of Christ the King in Kolkata, India, in 2016. Bikas Das/AP hide caption
There aren't hard numbers on who is searching and how many, but many adoption agencies in the U.S. confirm that they've seen an uptick in international adoptees searching for their biological parents over the last decade or so. Angela Hsieh/NPR hide caption
Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill allowing adults to carry firearms without a license and signed a bill to let private agencies deny placing a child for adoption based on religious beliefs. Jose Luis Magana/AP hide caption
A woman walks with orphans at an Addis Ababa orphanage in 2013. The number of Ethiopian children adopted by Americans fell from 2,511 in 2010 to 133 in 2016, according to the State Department. Ethiopia's parliament banned all foreign adoption in January. Sean Gallup/Getty Images hide caption
Ethiopian lawmakers voted to ban overseas adoptions, amid concerns about mistreatment of children. Danita Delimont/Getty Images/Gallo Images hide caption
In 2016 Kristy, left, and Dana Dumont attempted to adopt a foster child but were rejected because they were a same-sex couple, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week. Kristy Dumont hide caption
The Texas state House has passed an amendment prohibiting transgender students from using public school bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. A separate Legislature measure allowing religious exemptions for adoption and foster care is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
In their new ad, Vicks tells the story of an adopted girl and her mother figure, Gauri Sawant, a transgendered woman who was born a boy. Screengrab by NPR/Vicks India hide caption
In one of the few photos Anaya has from his time in foster care, he's pictured at age 4 in the backyard of one of his many foster homes. Courtesy of Noel Anaya hide caption
South Korean adoptee Adam Crapser poses with his 1-year-old daughter, Christal, in the family's living room in Vancouver, Wash., in 2015. Crapser, who was flown to the U.S. 37 years ago and adopted by an American couple at age 3, has been ordered deported back to South Korea. Gosia Wozniacka/AP hide caption
Nathan Tasker is transgender and adopted. He was surprised and delighted to meet other adopted transgender children at his camp in Maine. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption
Cleveland Clinic surgeons in February transplanted a uterus from a deceased donor into 26-year-old Lindsey McFarland, who was born without one. Though the experimental surgery was initially thought successful, a raging infection forced removal of the organ within weeks. Cleveland Clinic hide caption
Four couples have won their challenge of Mississippi's ban on same-sex adoption. Two of the plaintiffs, Susan Hrostowski (left) and Kathryn Garner, are seen here last summer with their teenage son, Hudson Garner. Rogelio V. Solis/AP hide caption
Visitors walk outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 14. The court announced on Monday that it has unanimously reversed an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that denied parental rights to a lesbian adoptive mother who had split with her partner. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption