Today, young women who find themselves pregnant face a similar stark choice, as mothers of preemies did back then: they're given the choice of either Abortion, or Abandonment in state institutions, both of which dehumanize the lost children.
Adoption of children faces the same cultural ambivalence that preemies and slaves faced historically, even though there are millions of adoptive parents who wait years for a child!
In my province of Canada, the number of adopted infants is in the single digits, while thousands of families wait for years without a child, and thousands of babies are aborted -- and the mother is never given the choice to allow the child to grow up in a loving family...
Perhaps we can make the loss and abandonment of children as unthinkable as slavery and discarding preemies to die was!
Many people find that practical concerns, like finances, override any moral qualms they might have on the concept.
If the US ever gets a socialized medical system, it'll be interesting to see if abortions decrease and babies available for adoption increase. Pregnant people will still face a decrease in finances on the supply side because they'll have to take time off work, but removing the expenses could reduce the problems with the practicality of basically being an incubator for needy parents who want to adopt.