Fact Check: No Evidence Erika Kirk's 'Romanian Angels' Evangelical Ministry Was Accused Of Trafficking Children In Romania -- No Adoptions

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fact Check: No Evidence Erika Kirk's 'Romanian Angels' Evangelical Ministry Was Accused Of Trafficking Children In Romania -- No Adoptions No Evidence

Is there any evidence that Charlie Kirk's widow Erika Kirk's "Romanian Angels" or "Everyday Heroes like You" ministries were accused of "snatching children only to send them straight into sex and organ trafficking networks in the United Kingdom and Israel? No, that's not true: A review of Romanian court records and media reports by Lead Stories' Romanian staff found only positive mentions of the charities' work. The charity promoted a campaign for Americans to "adopt" an orphan by sending them Christmas gifts to be delivered by U.S. military personnel stationed in Romania. It was not involved in international adoptions.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on X on September 23, 2025, that read in part:

Romanian Angels --
▪️Erika was a model and 'casting director' in the early 2000's. Later, Erika ran an evangelical Ministry in Romania that contracted with US military and fostered children for adoption. This organization was based in the same area in Romania where trafficking is rampant.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

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▪️Erika Kirk ▪️Everyday Heroes Like You ▪️ Romanian Angels -- ▪️Erika was a model and 'casting director' in the early 2000's. Later, Erika ran an evangelical Ministry in Romania that contracted with US military and fostered children for adoption. This organization was based in https://t.co/qLQnRilrzV

Screenshot 2025-09-23 112357.png

(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)

The post continued:

▪️ « I'm very proud that we have been able to go international in the past few years. I absolutely love working with the military so I feel blessed that we can do that on a continual basis through Antonio Placement Center in Constanta, Romania. » - EK '14
▪️This organization was one of many evangelical organizations that were accused by outraged locals of snatching children only to send them straight into Sex and organ Trafficking Networks in the UK & Israel.

The "evidence" that purportedly supported the claim was a blurry snippet of an online article titled "Romanian authorities are looking into possible links between Israeli adoption agencies and an illegal global conspiracy to sell organs for transplants."

Screenshot 2025-09-23 113209.png

(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)

A reverse image search found this Haaretz newspaper article (archived here) published on December 12, 2001:

Screenshot 2025-09-23 113710.png

(Source: screenshot of Haaretz.com by Lead Stories)

The article makes no mention of "Romanian Angels," or "Everyday Heroes like You," Kirk's two organizations that were not founded until a decade later. Kirk, whose maiden name is Frantzve, would have only been about 12 years old at the time.

Lead Stories' Romanian team found no relevant cases in a search of Romania's national justice portal for Antonio Placement Center (archived here) and Erika Kirk's maiden name (archived here).

Romanian media reported Erika Kirk's "Everyday Heroes like You" made donations in the form of gifts to Antonio Placement Center in Constanța, as well as to the local hospital, between 2011 and 2015.

Kirk's Instagram account documents the project including this 2013 post (archived here).

An article (archived here) published by a Constanța newspaper in 2015 portrayed the charities in a positive light, with no mention of suspicions of child trafficking.

The false claim that Kirk's groups were involved in international adoptions appears to be based on a holiday gift campaign in which Americans were urged to "adopt" a Romanian orphan by donating money to buy Christmas presents that would be delivered by American soldiers stationed at a NATO base in Constanța. This Instagram post (archived here) is from that campaign in 2014.

There is no evidence that the ministries were involved in actual international adoptions.

A local newspaper article (archived here) documented the gift donations to the orphans.

Screenshot 2025-09-23 123220.png

(Source: screenshot of ziuaconstanta.ro by Lead Stories)

The holiday "adoption" project was conducted along with the ongoing charity United Hands Romania.

There have been no Romanian media reports in the wake of the death of her husband that included anything negative about Erika Kirk. You can see positive articles here, here, and here.

Erika and Charlie Kirk began dating in 2019 and were married in May 2021.


  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

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