[RavenSong]

You know, folks, expectant mothers and birthmoms were NOT the people who thought up these financial schemes. Focus your anger on the agencies, the entire adoption industry, not the pregnant women.

Not many aparents and PAPs seem to care about the massive amounts of money they're being charged by agencies to adopt newborn infants. The only times I see anybody being incensed on the AP's boards are when the issue of discounting for AA and biracial babies comes up.

I saw a breakdown the other day on one of the AP boards of what an amom had spent on adopting her child. The marketing expenses were by far the greatest share of the pie. Excuse me, but MARKETING EXPENSES? How is this not buying or selling a baby??

When a new mother places her child for adoption thru an agency, the custody of the child is given to that agency. How is it not seen that the agency is selling that child? Is it only considered baby selling if it's done by the biological mother? Heaven forbid that a woman living in poverty gets any financial help while she's carrying the future child of an adoptive couple. But no one bats an eyelash at forking over thousands and thousands of dollars to the actual agency involved.

I have a feeling that if the government was the entity to fund the expenses of expectant moms that no one would care. After all, how many times have I read on these boards about agencies referring expectant moms to Medicaid to pay for childbirth and prenatal expenses? How many adoptive parents tell PAPs that they shouldn't have to pay any medical expenses for their soon-to-be babies? Just send them all to Medicaid.

Sorry about the rant, folks. I'm not in a very good mood today. I probably should just be quiet, but I'm kind of in a venting mood. And I'll probably wish I hadn't written all this in a few hours...