Land of 10,000 Billboards
Adoption in Minnesota is being promoted mile after mile. These billboards are as plentiful as birch trees in Minnesota.
“Face it. I had Eyes, Ears, and even my Tongue 28 days from Conception.”
“God knew my soul before I was born.”
“Adoption can be a Life-Saver.”
The ads feature photographs of adorable babies and are impossible to miss even if you’re powering down the highway at 70 miles per hour. These billboards are the work of Prolife Across America, a Christian organization that makes the claim that it has been “saving babies for 20 years.”
I’m not going to say much about abortion here. Hilary Clinton is the politician that makes the most sense to me with her “safe, legal, and rare” philosophy. I’m a girl who got pregnant in 1969 while attending Catholic school in a town so Catholic that public school wasn’t even an option. Abortion could not be on my list of considerations.
2 million couples wait to adopt
It’s the mention of adoption on these pro-life billboards that I’m concerned with.
“2 Million Couples wait to adopt.”
“God made me! Mom and Dad Adopted me!”
“If you’re not ready to be a Daddy, let someone who is.”
I feel a little crazy at these slogans which promote adoption as the sole alternative to abortion. And I find it curious that mothers do not merit a mention equivalent to the “If you’re not ready to be a Daddy” campaign. In fact, there’s no mention of the mothers (not even in the archives of past campaigns) at all.
Shame the women
I think shame’s role in the pregnancy/abortion/adoption drama should have played out by now. But I don’t think it has. It seems to be that one way to shame the mothers/women is to pretend they don’t exist. They are not worthy of even a mention.
Oh yes a plague of shame, it is the same house, the house of adoption and loss.These billboards are repugnant, I just can’t believe anything so offensive can be allowed!
I think I would prefer your billboards. I’ve seen one or two of these here where I am in NJ. But I live in an area where there aren’t many billboards so I think the reason there isn’t more of them is cost and the many other advertisers with more bucks to spend. Thank god! I hate their billboards.
They do nothing to promote safe sex. Then they wander why there are so many unwed pregnancies. So then they worry about abortion. And their solution? Just give your babies away – it’s the most loving thing. Really? Give them to strangers, forget about them, move on with your life. Never know anything about them or even if they survive in to adulthood. That’s totally the loving the choice for you and that baby. Oh yeah…
But it’s somehow not loving to set up funding to allow mother and child to stay together? No – that’s a sin.
I’m gonna puke.
I especially like your Death to Shame billboard. Great post, Denise.
I really like your billboard idea too.
Perhaps also all of the ‘end-demand/prostitution’ individuals should also re-focus their energy and money on developing a system/funding to support teens from abusive households/teen mothers without selling sex.
I sort of like the idea of an arrangement…like an infertile couple that loves children pseudo-adopts the birthmother and child (rather than completely taking the child), provides her a monthly stipend, mentorship, babysitting, etc. in exchange for some sense of parenthood/visitations/sharing the process of raising a child/auntie-uncle status.
Especially for two working parents – it makes a hell of a lot more sense than taking a child from a woman who can’t financially support it and then spending money on a nanny/au pair to raise the child…