The UK government has been urged by hundreds of women to give a formal apology for forced adoptions from the 1950s to the 1970s. It is imperative to note that in 2017, the government rejected a demand for a public inquiry, saying there was “insufficient justification”.
According to The Guardian, many of the women were unmarried teenagers when they became pregnant, and gave birth in church-run “mother and baby homes” in the UK.
During those decades, reports suggest that “an estimated quarter of a million women were coerced into having babies adopted during the period. In recent years, some have said they were made to feel shame and guilt.”
Sue Armstrong Brown, the chief executive of Adoption UK told the publication, “What happened to these women is heartbreaking and indefensible. Apologising to them is the right thing for the government to do. Today, adoption is only used when it is not safe for a child to stay with their birth family because of abuse, violence or neglect. But we owe it to these women and their children to face up to the wrong that was done to them in different times.”
