For the time they were “children of sin”. They couldn’t stay with the mothers. These women are now looking for excuses and justice. More than 250,000 British women were forced to give their children up for adoption from the 1950s to the 1970s. Now, hundreds of them are demanding an official apology from the London government.
Their guilt came from not being married. There Church and society excluded them and forced them to give up children born out of wedlock for adoption. Many of them, according to reports from the BBC who told the stories, have never had children and lived a life of pain.
The request is that the UK apologize formally for forced adoptions as did Australia in 2013, but also Canada and Ireland.
“They called us lost women, it was the worst possible shame,” she said Jill Killington of Leeds who became pregnant at 16 in 1967. “It seemed like a thing worse than death.” She spent most of her pregnancy locked in the house and had to wear a wedding band when she went out.
Veronica Smith became pregnant in 1965 while working as a nurse. “My mother told me that my father would kill me if he knew. He never knew about it, ‘he told the BBC. She was staying in a home for unwed mothers in London and secretly met her mother. They showed their father letters saying he was working in Spain.
The experts who worked on the cases counted around 500,000 children given up for adoption between 1945 and 1975 when the law changed. The mothers were mostly girls under the age of 24 and single. All had been directed to give their children up for adoption by hospital staff, by their families, by members of the Church. There were at least 150 homes for single mothers run by religious institutions in the UK in the postwar years. It was only in 1976 that the management of adoptions passed to the state. For previous adoptions there are strong doubts about the regularity of the procedures. Women were supposed to voluntarily sign documents.
Ann Keen was 17 and was given nothing for pain at the time of delivery. The midwife said: “So you will remember you will not do it again“. She was not even given the chance to greet her son. Ann Keen entered Parliament and supported the cause of women who had suffered the same treatment. The search for children, as in the film Philomena with Judi Dench, it often lasts for years. Many have reported suffering from the inhumane treatment suffered by the natural mothers.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
