Watch: Fox News-Rejected Ad on LGBTQ Adoption Discrimination

On Wednesday, civil rights advocates publicly unveiled a TV ad challenging adoption discrimination that was rejected by Fox News.

The video made its debut during a media call hosted by the ACLU announcing landmark litigation challenging adoption discrimination in Michigan.

"Kids Pay the Price" is new TV ad that depicts the kinds of harms children can face when adoption agencies and workers are exempted from following key child welfare laws based on individual beliefs.

The ad, which Fox News Channel refused to air, was created by the Movement Advancement Project and released in partnership with the Child Welfare League of America and the National Association of Social Workers, alongside a companion report, Kids Pay the Price: How Religious Exemptions for Child Welfare Agencies Harm Children. The ad and report coincide with an ACLU lawsuit challenging Michigan's practice of allowing state-funded child-placing agencies to turn away prospective families headed by same-sex couples based on religious objections.

Currently, there are 428,000 children in state care in the U.S., with more than 100,000 of them awaiting adoption. Unfortunately, a growing number of states (including Texas, South Dakota, Alabama, Michigan, North Dakota, Mississippi and Virginia) have passed religious exemption laws that allow child welfare workers to reject qualified parents and to put their individual beliefs above the best interests of children. Meanwhile, Congress is considering legislation that would cut child welfare funding to states that require agencies to not discriminate.

H/T - Movement Advancement Project