Do negative media stories about Birth Mothers affect your view of them?

I don't know about you, but I have never seen a positive story about birth mothers in the media. It seems to me that there is more attention and focus on abortion, not adoption. During National Adoption Awareness Month I saw more media on the debate about health care covering abortion than I did about awareness of adoption. I think if these news sources spent even half the time discussing the positives of adoption and the brave women out there who put themselves aside to make a better life for their children, well perhaps there would be many more adoptions happening in this country.

I have been working for months to reach the media to tell them a positive story about adoption. I cannot tell you how many copies of my book I have sent out in the hopes that someone will give me a chance to show people that adoption is a very gratifying journey for a birth mother. Needless to say, they do not want to hear a positive story about adoption because positive does not sell in this day and age...scandal and negativity is where the real focus is. For example...

The other night I was watching Anderson Cooper's 360 and the topic of this new health care covering abortion came up. His segment was called "Digging Deeper", and he spent 7 minutes touring a Planned Parenthood in New York with the administrator that ran the clinic. They went into great detail about where the procedure took place, what they "counseled" these girls about...claiming that they would talk to these young women about their options....how much time was spent in the procedure room and how much it cost both without insurance and with insurance. It was an indepth look at abortion. It was sickening to me. As a birth mother, it was a slap in the face that they were going into such detail about it.

When the story was finished, Anderson came back with this statement, "Senator So and So has hired his girlfriend to help run his campaign. Is this an ethical choice?" I sat staring at the TV in a state of shock. I thought..."What an ironic statement for you to say Anderson. You just spent 7 minutes highlighting abortion, an unethical decision to a large number of people, on a prime time news show and you are asking if a Senator hiring his girlfriend is ethical!" Maybe, just maybe, if the media would spend as much time discussing the positives about adoption and how it can change peoples lives for the better, well then perhaps there would be many more adoptions going on in this country.

I sent an email to Anderson and told him just what I stated above. Do you think he called to say, "What is your positive story about adoption? Why are you trying to change adoption for the better?" Nope!

I believe there needs to be a serious change in the system.

What do you think?