A Loophole in Pennsylvania Law Allowed a Registered Sex Offender to Become a Parent Via Surrogacy

Brandon Keith Riley-Mitchell is a registered sex offender. In 2016, Mitchell, a high school chemistry teacher, was charged with unlawful contact with a minor, child pornography, corruption of minors, and endangerment of the welfare of children. Authorities found more than 12,000 messages between Keith and a student. Those messages contained explicit images and discussions of future sexual contact.

Under Pennsylvania law, Keith's conviction meant he was prohibited from adopting or fostering children. But he was able to have a child via a surrogate, as Pennsylvania law doesn't prohibit that.

Brandon Mitchell is a registered sex offender.

He and partner Logan Riley hired a surrogate so they could obtain a child.

Pennsylvania law prevents sex offenders from adopting children—

But NOT from purchasing them via surrogacy.

Child protective services should investigate… pic.twitter.com/7RSFSutTVZ
— Live Action (@LiveAction) April 20, 2026

Here's more:

A recent case out of Pennsylvania has forced family law attorneys, lawmakers and parents to confront an uncomfortable reality: the state’s surrogacy framework was never built with child protection in mind.
Brandon Keith Riley-Mitchell, a Tier 1 registered sex offender, legally became the parent of a newborn child conceived through gestational surrogacy. Videos of his baby’s first birthday went viral, petitions circulated and questions mounted about how someone with his criminal history was able to gain full parental rights.
The answer, according to the York County District Attorney, is simple. No law was broken.
Pennsylvania prohibits registered sex offenders from adopting or fostering children, but it has no statute restricting who may become a parent through surrogacy. That gap, combined with the widespread use of pre-birth orders that automatically assign parentage at birth, created the exact conditions that allowed this outcome.

Our bill, the Protecting Children in Surrogacy Act, would ensure this doesn't happen.

This bill imposes up to 10 years in federal prison for predators using surrogacy as a backdoor to children.

Children are not commodities, and surrogacy will not be weaponized by predators.… https://t.co/0lV2tFTWzo
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) April 21, 2026

"Children are not commodities, and surrogacy will not be weaponized by predators. This legislation protects the most vulnerable among us and ensures those who prey on children will face the full force of federal law. We will not allow sex offenders to exploit any system to access children," Mace wrote on X.

Last year, Pennsylvania State Representative Aaron Bernstine said he planned to introduce legislation to close that loophole and bar sex offenders from obtaining children through surrogacy. State Representative Ryan Bizzarro, a Democrat, also supported the legislation, saying, "We must close the loophole that allows dangerous and predatory individuals to have access to children."

Townhall reached out to the offices of Senators Dave McCormick and John Fetterman for comment, but neither office has responded.

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