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SAN DIEGO — She built a name for herself as a highly skilled reproductive law specialist in a state considered the nation’s hub for surrogate pregnancies with its well-established network of sperm banks, fertility clinics and social workers.

But prosecutors say Theresa Erickson was actually working the system to become an international baby broker, running a birthing factory out of the Ukraine that duped at least a dozen American couples into paying $150,000 for children they thought were being adopted legally.

Details about the ring surfaced in federal court in San Diego in recent days after Erickson pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a case that prosecutors say highlights the need for more protection for adoptive parents, children and surrogate mothers.

Prosecutors described an elaborate scheme that stretched across two continents. Erickson and two others allegedly recruited women to go to the Ukraine and be implanted with embryos from anonymous donors.

They told their clients the babies had been part of a surrogacy contract and that the prospective parents had backed out at the last minute, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason...