What is your opinion on "Aggressive Birthmother Outreach"?

I saw this today and was wondering what other people think about this:

(These quotes are from an agency website)

"We are results driven!

Unlike many state-regulated adoption agencies, we are not confined by stringent state-mandated budget restrictions. This means we can advertise and market more aggressively to find the right child for you quicker.

In fact, on average we are able to match families for you within 4 months when, according to National Adoption Information Clearinghouse the standard for adoptions is 1 to 5 years!!! "

"Here Is How We will Help You Find A Baby To Adopt:

* XXXX places extensive Nationwide Internet advertising specifically targeting suitable Birthparents knowing that the Internet is the most widely used medium of this demographic.
* Over 1 million dollars spent in Birthmother advertising annually.
* Aggressive grassroots marketing and outreach programs to reach other birthmothers who might not otherwise find us through more traditional forms of advertising and marketing. We market to:

* Maternity Homes
* Family Planning Clinics
* Crisis Pregnancy Clinics
* Hospitals and Medical Clinics
* Teen Pregnancy Programs
* Church Groups
* Chat Rooms
* Civic Organizations
* Abortion Clinics
* Bulletin Boards
* Pregnancy Hotlines
* Physicians
* Community Referrals
* Social Workers
* High Schools, Colleges and Universities"

"We pre-screen all of our birth mothers for pre-existing medical and psychological conditions.

For example, all of our birth mothers see a medical doctor who checks their medical history, screens for drugs, alcohol, disease, HIV, Hepatitis and even psychological problems. We can help you find and adopt a happy healthy baby."
Additional Details
I am so glad so many other people see this to be as disgusting and predatory as I did. I agree with the several posters who said this should be illegal.Makes me feel like there's hope for humanity after all! :)

I can't pick a best answer - too many great ones to choose from! Thanks for answering!

myst1998

OMG, they are deranged! They don't see these girls as human beings....merely ways to achieve their goal of making money and tearing families apart.

Totally sick.

They should be shut down.

PUKE.

Evil predators.

Abuse of human rights.

SJM

It sounds about as 'ethical' as a dating service advertising in a marriage counselor's office.

Carol c

Disgusting - how utterly insensitive.

Freckle Face

Hi MamaKate,

well, actually a few words come to mind......

manipulative
exploitative
coercive
disingenuous

along with some other words i can't use here:)

Felicita1

Baby brokers. And who says they're not selling babies for profit when they engage in such aggressive and well-funded marketing in order to pull in women who otherwise may have kept their babies? We all know that these agencies have 32 yrs worth of research on how to persuade women to surrender their infants crafted into their agencies procedures, brochures, and counseling practices. One friend of mine found 1/3 of all academic articles she found on "birthmothers" were research studies on how to get more of them to surrender babies. This is how and why open adoption began.

"[Open adoption] was proposed by Baran and her colleagues as a way of encouraging unmarried women (and specifically unmarried white women) to relinquish their babies for adoption at a time when they were increasingly choosing to raise them alone" - Yngvasson (1997)

This aggressive persuasion is horrible. Of course, how much do these baby brokers charge for each baby? Even if it is only $25,000, they still only have to convince 40 mothers to surrender their babies to cover the cost of advertising.

<3 Camille Cutie <3

These people sound like they have NO ETHICS, NO CONSCIOUS, AND NO MORALS... It makes me SICK just thinking about it

monkeykitty83

I consider "birthmother outreach" pretty coercive. Most if not all North Americans know adoption is a possibility, so it's not like they need to be educated that the option exists.

So basically, "outreach" to people who aren't considering adoption means planting doubts in people's heads about their ability to raise their own children.

If people want to place their children for adoption, they will seek adoption out. If not, adoption doesn't need to seek THEM out.

cantstopLinnyG

"Chat rooms"...and people wonder why we go on the offense when we see people post here looking for a baby?
Kate, this is disgusting. Could you email me the link to this place?- Id love to investigate them.

HouseMom

"Unlike many state-regulated adoption agencies, we are not confined by stringent state-mandated budget restrictions."

This sentence alone scares the crap out of me. On paper, I can see how this appeals to a desperate young mom. And that's why it scares me. It sounds a little over the top and like they prey on women who are in bad situations who are forced with a very difficult decision.

aloha.girl59

Wow.
I'm repulsed.
My stomach actually turned a little bit when I read what you wrote.

When I first saw the headline to your question, I thought it was going to be about aggressively searching for first mothers AFTER they'd lost their children to adoption. I was going to support that!

Excuse me while I go vomit.

Heather Leigh

This could explain all of the "email me" requests that people get when they ask about placing their child for adoption.

Flippen disgusting. I wonder how these people sleep at night?

Sly

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke in the 1700's and the same is true today.

This has become acceptable because good people let it go and let it go and let it go until this is what we have. This is totally in keeping with what the NCFA advertised in their literature, so the fact that they are actually doing what they said they would should come as no surprise. We are reaping what has been sown. Families are in danger, women are in danger, children are in danger.

BLW_KAM

It's as appealing as the loud mouth on TV who is forever trying to get us to buy OxiClean and the magic paint stick.

Did a carnival hawker write this?

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Temperance

That is sick. It sounds like babies are Play-Doh.

sunny

"Over 1 million dollars spent in Birthmother advertising annually."

Over a million in advertising alone!

These must be some VERY expensive children!

Nameless

*gag*

They are not even trying to hide the fact that this is about finding babies for adults. Nobody should be trying to separate parents and children, unless the mother truly cannot or will not parent.

*puke*

Lori A

My guess is most of these kids will be International adoptees from a sleezy agency that takes advantage of third world women. If they offer domestic adoption then in my opinion any pregnant women living with in a 50 mile radius of their office should not go out alone at night.

JennaBear

All I can think of is those animal shows on the Discovery Channel, where the lions hide near watering holes and then BAM they attack the gazelles. These tactics are SERIOUSLY disturbing. They are money driven predators and should be stopped.

Pleasantly Psycho Cat

I find this repulsive. I just ate some cake which was yummy but after reading this it tastes like ash. These people need to be shut down ASAP.

kitta

Trafficking. sounds like they don't even have an office.

DevonChaos

That is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. I actually had one of those types of people confront me in the hospital after I had my first daughter, and she was out for blood. I had to get a nurse to ask her to leave.
They are part of what makes adoption such a heinous process. Unreal!

Opedial

I just puked in my mouth a little bit.

gypsywinter

And who says adoption is not Big Business??!!!!!

""Over 1 million dollars spent in Birthmother advertising annually.""

They must 'sell' a lot of babies to cover the cost of their advertising...

Laurel J

This is obscene. Marketing to high schools should be illegal.

They're doing everything people don't want to think is done and more. To those who think private adoptions are OK--if you read that stuff at the below site instead of the agency site, would you believe it? Or would you discount it because "some women who place their children just want to wallow in it"?

http://www.motherhelp.info/finding_babies.htm

snowwillow20

You would think it would take them at least 9 months.

School Nurse

tacky and disgusting, to say the least.

grapesgum

Thank you for this question. I have used this information in my answers to questions from people who believe that coercion of expectant mothers is a thing that only happened in the Era of Mass Surrender/Baby Scoop Era. My answers with this information are often deleted with a violation.

Coercion is alive and well folks. Happens every day. This is proof.

This also explains how lurkers here on Y!A justify their answers to every question by a pregnant woman with an "I am your friend. Email me." answer.

The marketing to schools is disgusting. Hey - why not start adoption indoctrination in elementary school? Then those preggo teens will be pregroomed to pop out babies for infertile people.

Kazi

That list just gave me the heebiest of jeebies :(((((

Philippa

I've never heard of this and I don't like the sound of it ... for a start referring to a mother as a birth mother before surrendering is horrible and it's way to agressive for my liking.

Nurse Autumn Intactivist NFP

Anyone who thinks that adoption is about the child and the natural mother is fooling themselves, obviously...

Harriet

OK, that's just creepy. I understand it's supposed to make sense...like they're looking everywhere and checking and finding a match and everybody's happy...but it's just weird and creepy! Very pushy and nasty. They market to chat rooms?! And doctors? Nasty.

Harriet

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