These are the opening lines of a BBC documentary on the history of forced adoptions in the UK and the involved mothers’ search for justice. These coerced adoptions of babies of young unmarried mothers to “acceptable” married couples were facilitated by the church, charities and the government. The women faced sustained pressure to give up their children from all kinds of professionals involved in the process: doctors, midwives, workers in mother and baby homes and adoption agencies staff in both religious and council-run homes. Pressured by the rigid rules of society, their own parents were often ashamed of them and supported such actions.
Even though the 1975 and 1989 Children Acts and the 1976 Adoption Act made it easier for adopted children and their birth mothers to reconnect with each other, the UK remains one of the rare European countries that allows for the state to force a child into adoption without the consent of a child’s biological parents.
This 12-minute-long documentary filled with personal heartbreaking experiences is available on YouTube.