The Church of England has issued an apology for its role in the decades-long practice of forced adoptions, in which tens of thousands of unmarried pregnant women and girls in England and Wales were sent to institutions where their babies were taken from them.

Apology and Acknowledgement

The archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said in the apology that the church had listened to firsthand accounts of some of the people affected, who described ‘the pain, shame and indignity experienced both then and now.’ The archbishop stated, ‘Today, we say to each of you: The shame you were made to feel was wrong. You have nothing to be ashamed of.’ The church acknowledged that it was part of a society that valued secrecy and respectability over compassion and care.

The apology came after years of advocacy by survivors of the institutions, run by the church and known as ‘mother and baby homes,’ where unwed mothers were often sent to give birth in secrecy. Many women described being forced or pressured into handing over their babies for adoption in a system that exploited their shame.

Historical Context and Impact

The Church of England was involved in potentially more than 200 mother and baby homes in England and Wales from 1949 to 1976. During that time, an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers and placed for adoption in England and Wales amid a culture of ignominy and hostility surrounding pregnancy outside marriage.

Diana Defries from the Movement for an Adoption Apology, an advocacy group that has worked for years for accountability, spoke about the apology, saying it was a long time coming. She shared her personal experience of having her daughter taken from her shortly after giving birth in 1974 and being made to feel responsible for the forced adoption.

Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.