Tyler Baltierra continues to call out the pitfalls of the adoption industry, 17 years after he and his now-wife Catelynn Lowell placed their first daughter, Carly, for adoption. The ‘Teen Mom’ star recently raised some eyebrows when he debated whether private adoption should be considered a form of human trafficking.
Earlier this month, Tyler had Dr. Kristen Kirkland on his Cate and Ty Break It Down! podcast to discuss adoption. Dr. Kirkland— who is a medical doctor, anti-trafficking advocate and author and an adoptee herself— agreed with Tyler that the definition of adoption is shockingly close to the definition of human trafficking.
Tyler– who, as fans know has been very outspoken against adoption since the Carly’s parents cut him and Cate off in 2024— stated that both concepts are similar because in both cases people are paying for other humans.
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“It costs, you know, upwards of $50,000 to adopt a baby,” he said. “…It is one of those things where now we’re crossing into not only psychological things that are unethical, but now we’re talking about actual policies and, like, how money is involved and how every other
country in the world knows that commodifying children, human beings, is not ethical.”
Dr. Kirkland explained that she was a family medicine doctor who took a special interest in human trafficking, only to eventually discover shocking similarities between human trafficking and adoption. She also shared that she was adopted at birth.
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“The more I educated about what trafficking is and how we define it on a legal level, the more I realized that a lot of the circumstances surrounding my adoption actually met that definition too, which was shocking for me,” she said. “It took me a while to realize and the day I did, I really wrestled with it for a good bit. Like, could this seriously be true? But I think that it is.”
Tyler agreed, adding that he feels things get even more unethical when the birth parents are minors themselves. (As fans know, this was the case for Tyler and Catelynn, who were both 17 years old when they placed Carly for adoption.)
“I mean, there’s two sets of minors here,” Tyler continued. “There’s the [birth] parents who are having this child and there’s a baby. And then there’s adults who are, you know, paying lots of money to acquire this other minor. And I think that’s where the lines kind of get blurry and people are like, ‘We need to like kind of focus in on that because I think that says a lot about how this industry works over here.'”
Tyler and Dr. Kirkland— who has spoken about the correlation of American adoptions and human trafficking before— both agreed that they get a lot of negative feedback for talking about this topic.
“When you say stuff like, ‘Well, adoption is very similar to human trafficking,’ people just immediately get on the defensive,” Tyler said. “…I think that is probably one of the most-triggering statements that I see. People get really like, ‘Whoa, like, how dare you?’ And I think if people were to not be so defensive and be a little more just curious about…even if it’s shocking to you [to hear that comparison], instead of getting so defensive, why don’t you pause for a second and ask [us], ‘How are you coming to this kind of correlation?'”
Dr. Kirkland— who has a book about adoption coming out in 2028— explained why the definition of human trafficking is so similar to what happens with private infant adoptions.
“The definitions [of what counts as human trafficking] from the United States and also the United Nations are similar in structure,” she said. “The wording is just slightly different, but the meaning is the same. We use a model called the Palermo Protocol, which is… the structure of how we describe trafficking in the law. It’s the act of obtaining a person…by means of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of exploiting them for profit.”
Dr. Kirkland said that if a minor is involved in one of these acts, it already qualifies technically.
“So if I think about it through that lens, which is very much how I came to this after years and years of studying trafficking and then coming out of adoption fog, the minor is already involved in private infant adoption, and then that means force, fraud, coercion,” she said. “I started
learning about especially the coercion. There have been periods in history of force and certainly there’s been fraud in adoption too, but the coercion is a really big key.”
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“Unfortunately, coercion is a big part of recruiting parents to relinquish,” Dr. Kirkland said. “And then identity exploitation, identity trafficking…exploiting an adoptee for profit. We know the industry is very much for-profit and exploitation is making a profit on
that transaction or adoption.
“…For a lot of private infant adoptees, we very much see the mental health ramifications of forced assimilation into a family of strangers,” she added.
Tyler spoke about how he— and other birth parents— are subtly coerced into going through with the adoption.
“Even having adoptive parents at the hospital in the same wing of the hospital, you know, while this birth mother is planning to relinquish is a very subtle form of coercion,” he said. “Because how can I possibly feel safe enough to change my mind if I know that I’m going to break this family’s heart, [and they’re] right next door and have the car seat in their hands?”
Tyler said that ‘Teen Mom’ fans often argue with him when he says that he and Cate were coerced into giving up Carly, due to the fact that the scene played out on Catelynn’s episode of “16 and Pregnant.”
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“A lot of people even talk about mine and my wife’s story about like, ‘You weren’t coerced. We watched it happen. We watched you do this,'” he said. “And it’s like, ‘Yeah but you don’t understand that I was also a child.’ You know what I mean? And so I’m listening to all the adults around me who are telling that it’s better to do this than it is to parent and that kind of stuff.”
Tyler brought up the fact that birth parents are often asked by their adoption counselor to fill out a “pros and cons” list for relinquishing the baby versus parenting him or her. He stated that he found that concept weird, even back then.
“I kept thinking in my head at that time, ‘Well, people have children all the time and never do pros and cons lists,'” he said. “So in my head, I’m like, why are we doing that with young vulnerable women who are in crisis pregnancies, clearly, or else they wouldn’t be in the situation to even think about relinquishing?”
Dr. Kirkland pointed out other factors that make human trafficking and infant adoption so similar, in her opinion.
“There is so much other overlap too,” she said. “The money being exchanged for humans is just a small part of it.”
She stated that the factors that make a young person more likely to be trafficked for sex or labor, etc.— such as having prior trauma, being economically unstable or having very little adult supervision— are very similar to the reasons biological parents give for choosing to relinquish their baby.
“The overlap of the factors that lead to trafficking and the factors that lead someone to relinquish, they’re so similar,” she said. “Like the Venn diagram has a huge middle circle. And so, it’s interesting to see just how similar. …Pimps would target maybe group homes– where there were minors who weren’t as well-supervised or who were impoverished or who needed their basic needs provided for– so that they could exploit them for commercial sex. So similarly to what we were just saying, you know, we target impoverished families or people in crisis unexpected pregnancy.”
Catelynn and Tyler have both been outspoken about biological parents choosing alternatives to adoption, such as kinship placement.
“I think it’s one of those things where it goes back to a permanent solution that affects more than one person for a really temporary crisis situation,” Tyler said of adoption.
You can listen to the full podcast episode here.
(Photos: MTV; Instagram)
Tackle your families F’d up lineage before diving into these topics, Tyler. Now go shave that caterpillar off your chin. You look like a boy cosplaying as a man.
Wow Tyler, what a complete pos you are, you told Cait you would dump her if she kept tha baby, you constantly praised B&T for being amazing people, until you and that wife constantly ran your mouths, disrespecting boundary’s and talking about the private lives of Carly and her parents.
Personally I’d have shut things down years before they did, they gave you numerous chances, but you couldn’t zip your yap.
Now Carly and her parents put boundaries in place, you done nothing but continue to disrespect and bad mouth them, and hate on them, I’d seek legal advice if I were them,
You are a despicable useless man .
This man is a complete idiot – smh. I cannot understand how he and his wife have become so delusional that they truly believe this nonsense they’re spitting out.
Horrid!! These children go to loving families. Comparing it to trafficking is abhorrent. He needs to just STFU. I can’t even believe Tyler is this stupid and ignorant And I already knew he’s a total loser moron.
Tyler is busy auditing the ethics of everyone else’s decisions, but what about creating a human knowing he wasn’t going to be able to take care of her?
And how was this adoption so terrible? Carly was adopted by a loving couple who have given her a great home. It is not the adoption agency or adoptive couple’s fault that T and C saw they could make money off of skewing the story. What happened to being teens from broken homes and not being able to provide for Carly? What happened to college plans? They’ve made a career of being victims in their minds only.
Insufferable. If Teen Mom hadn’t come along, Tyler wouldn’t give the adoption but minimal thought because he would be focused on earning a living and looking to the future than being stuck in the past. Its disgusting that they’re still grifting off of Carly.
I can’t with this man anymore. When will he stop talking?! And all cuz their firstborn doesn’t want to talk to them anymore (and as we saw the DM’s to Brandon and Theresa it was all just “look at how good we are living” and not one question about her) You don’t even KNOW HER! You knew who she is as a newborn but you never showed interest in her apart from trying to claim her like “THIS IS OUR KID!” No, she isn’t. And I’m pretty sure still it was Carly who wanted to cut contact. (But I bet she still hears in school about these two bimbos talking about her) Brandon and Theresa aren’t just two mean ones who “stole your kid”. You decided to put her up for adoption. They are her parents. They raised her and are continuing raising her. Plus…she also never felt connected to her birth sisters cuz she has an actual brother too. Don’t mix your own feelings here. They aren’t a reality.
(As I said once, I know she won’t want to be in the spotlight but I would love to hear Carly’s side of the story in a book one day. I’m sure it felt strange from the beginning when she was a little kid.)
Tyler really does not help anything here. It’s true that there are many issues with the private adoption industry. But, Tyler’s perspective is so skewed and rooted in delusion that it overshadows the very real flaws in the industry.
He has used Carly as his cash cow for her whole life, so this conversation feels hypocritical and self-serving at best.
And there is the tiny little detail that Tyler keeps overlooking. Who in his family would have been able to take care of Carly in a kinship placement? Butch and April fought hard against the adoption and were a huge reason why adoption was necessary. Kim was not willing to take on a baby and pushed for adoption. I can’t imagine there was a lot of stable extended family. And even in general, finding a kinship placement is tricky and doesn’t guarantee anything. It’s grueling and heart wrenching for people to love and raise a child only to have to Return to Sender upon demand, which could be years down the road. And what would that do to the child? He acts like children are these things you can hit pause on, put down somewhere, and come back for them later. But, children keep growing, and they can’t just be set aside.
Adoption is not a perfect solution, but Tyler’s thoughts on this are delusional.
Adoption is a beautiful picture of what Christ did for us on the cross. He adopted us as sons and daughters. We are co-heirs with Christ.
Someone needs to duct tape his mouth shut!
They have literally lived off the daughter they gave up for 17 years. They are the ones exploiting minors.
C&T have violated Carly’s privacy online for her WHOLE LIFE, USING her to make MONEY!! They don’t have anything else to SELL, except maybe T’s OFans!! I hope she goes No Contact with them when she turns 18, and she SUES them for her share of the profits!!
Tyler is so delusional. He and his nitwit wife need to be advocates for STFU! Leave that girl alone! She’s not yours! Stop talking about her! I wish B&T would take legal action.
They are the ones who have exploited Carly! They won’t stop talking about her. I’m not saying all adoptions are good, but I have 2 cousins who were adopted from horrible homes & they love being part of our family. We love them & they are treated they same as everyone else. Tyler & Cate may regret giving up Carly, which is valid, but they have got to stop with all this crap about how adoption is bad just because they have done nothing with their life.
i blame his mom kim for constantly making him feel dumb because now we’re paying the price having to hear tyler trying to sound super intelligent when really he’s in the deep end now
People need to stop giving these people a platform to humiliate and embarrass the child they gave up for adoption. Yes, they gave her up, the “we placed her” bs has helped keep them stuck in some kind of claim over her… they are messed up
Probably like the coercion when he told her he would leave if she didn’t put her up for adoption. Can this moron just stfu?
Stfu for God sake!!! 18 years of this. We’ve all seen it. You didn’t want to raise this baby. Because of money, family problems and toxic living conditions. April went hell and back to stop you from giving her up. But you were determined. Absolutly determined.
At this point I wish his mother would have swallowed. Jesus the absolute delusions and lack of any kind of intelligence is astounding.
Same old 💩.
This hasn’t always been their story, this is something he has latched on to.
In their book, he and Cait agreed that they were not in the position to give Carly a good home due to Ape being an alcoholic and smoking crack. Tyler and Cait were also doing their part of partying, which he neglects to talk about.
Tyler’s mom had initiated an adoption for his sister’s baby, too.
He knows damn well Carly has the life she deserves. And even with all their Teen Mom money, he and Cait couldn’t give her the same life. He should really get the therapy he needs so he can heal from this. Carly is almost 18 and they haven’t been able to let it go for 18 years.
Tyler always glosses over the fact that he was the biggest reason why Cate agreed to place Carly. Was Tyler’s mahm a trafficker responsible for his coercion of Cate?
You know what Tyler? You need to get off of your lazy, good-for-nothing ass and get a job! And your fat-ass wife should also!! You have taught your other daughters what it is to be lazy and self-important, but very little else! Those poor girls have probably already figured out that they will never mean as much to mommy and daddy as Carly does. They will be so jaded by the lies and bullshit stories that these pathetic parents talk non stop about. It’s a shame these girls have to raised by trash like you and Catelynn!!
I definitely agree with you. I feel like they are really villainizing the adoption industry. There are definitely issues with it but I think the bigger question should be, are the children who are adopted, are their lives anything like those that are trafficked?! That’s the issue I have. Human trafficking is a crime. Adoption is not.
“every other country in the world knows that commodifying children, human beings, is not ethical.”
I’m sorry, what? You mean the hundreds of children in third world countries who live in orphanages, hoping to be adopted? Adoption has nothing to do with ethics. Nothing. It’s a conscious, intended, legally binding agreement that people make with each other. Yes, cate and Tyler were minors when they entered an adoption agreement, but that is unfortunately the reality of their situation. As the birth parents they were allowed to choose adoption. They sought out the adoption process. No one forced them or snatched the baby from them.
They are unhappy with the lack of information they received or whatever their gripe is, but reality is that they were totally all for adoption and decided that is what they wanted to do with the baby. We all saw it on tv, it was explained that they will have no rights to the child. I remember Teresa saying “in all other ways, she is our child”.
It’s embarrassing and cringey every time these two speak. Why have we not heard 1 thing about their other kids? How about anything to do with anything going on in any of their other kids lives?? Surely they can use their platform to advocate for or bring awareness to plenty of other things. They’re just unbelievably stunted.