Adoption services president pushes back against media abortion narrative: 'We've got to do something tangible'

With November being National Adoption Month, Lifeline’s Children Services president and executive director Herbie Newell is encouraging adoption services for women with unplanned pregnancies as mainstream media and pro-choice supporters continue to promote abortion.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Newell commented on the overwhelming focus on abortion leading up to the midterm elections.

"I think it’s because folks are looking at the overturning of Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision, and I think for so long we haven’t really seen adoption as a true alternative to abortion. I think in a lot of ways, the pro-choice lobby has done a great job of really making abortion seem like a birth control or some type of pregnancy prevention as opposed to really looking at it," Newell said.

He elaborated, "As a whole, since the Dobbs decision, the mainstream media has either ignored adoption as a legitimate option to an unplanned pregnancy or has taken the view of the Washington Post that adoption is not a viable option that would ever be chosen by a pregnant woman. Both of these routes treat the unborn child as less than and disregard the thousands of women who choose life and adoption annually. Adoption is brave love, it is an unselfish decision that chooses life, hope and opportunity for a baby over death and hopelessness."

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After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights have emerged as a key election issue for Democrats and their supporters. Many media pundits have similarly promoted abortion not only as a democratic right but a moral good, and there was a largely panicked reaction in the press to the landmark decision by the court's conservative judges.

"The mainstream media has deemed abortion as ‘healthcare’ and therefore perceives that anyone who doesn’t choose abortion, naturally planned their pregnancy and therefore would never choose to place their child in the arms of another. The media divorces everything in the abortion arena from the personhood of the unborn and the future mental and emotional health of a mom," Newell said.

He added, "The media does not show the hurt, loss, devastation, and heartbreak from abortion. By picking and choosing messaging, it reinforces a negative stereotype on adoption, while promoting a positive on abortion." 

Newell suggested that the month of November could be a good opportunity to push back against pro-choice and media framing.

"National Adoption Month is just a great month for us to even re-focus some of the post-Dobbs, post-Roe swamp and really frame that into ‘hey, yes, we want to be pro-life, but we want to be so much pro-life that we’re actually willing to put our families on the line.’ We’re willing to put our lives on the line to go and care for these children. And not just care for these children, but care for these women," he explained.

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Newell emphasized his organization’s grassroots efforts in not only providing adoption services for women in a crisis pregnancy but counseling services as well. By contrast, he criticized pro-choice advocates for downplaying the impact of a pregnancy and abortion on a woman.

"That life makes an indelible imprint on that mom, and that mom, no matter what she chooses, she’s making a motherly choice. So if she chooses abortion, the idea that she will never think about that choice again is just a farce. She will think about it each and every day. With adoption, she also ends up childless in the end, but she has given life, opportunity and has hope for what her child can be," Newell said.

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He further argued that doubts about life from pro-choice advocates only motivate the pro-life argument.

"Actually, the whole argument that we don’t know if it’s life is not a pro-choice argument but a pro-life argument. Because if there’s a chance that it is life, then we have to protect, we have to defend, we have to care, we have to wrap around that life and protect what’s vulnerable," he said.

Newell also advocated for pro-life organizations and supporters to step up in a post-Dobbs world to prove their support for women and children. 

"It’s not enough for us just to be pro-life. It’s not enough for us just to vote in a way that’s life-affirming or to advocate for policies. We’ve got to do something tangible," he said.