The Joint Commission on Human Rights (JCHR) estimates that 185,000 children were taken from their mothers between 1949 and 1976 and says the government bears ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and government officials involved in the process. In a damning report released Friday, it says the women and girls were stigmatized and shamed first because they became pregnant out of wedlock and later because they were mistakenly believed to have given up their children voluntarily. The legacy was a lifetime of suffering for mothers and adoptees, including mental health effects and challenges in forming future relationships. In oral evidence at the JCHR, Judy Baker, who gave birth two days before her 19th birthday and put her baby up for adoption seven weeks later, said: “It’s 53 years later and I’m still a wreck because of what happened to me and my daughter. “We’ve been quiet for so long because of this awful cloak of shame that they’ve put on us that we never deserved… I never got to say goodbye. They took her into the next room where her new parents were waiting and that was that.’ The report said adoption practices at the time “lacked humanity”, with many mothers feeling they had no real choice in placing their children for adoption. The commission heard evidence that they were often treated appallingly by people whose job it was to help them, such as social workers and NHS medical staff, as well as by their own family members. Many women and girls were taken to mother and baby homes – run by the state or religious and charitable bodies – for the last weeks of their pregnancies. There, some were punished for having a child out of wedlock, forced to scrub stairs and floors. One recalled that those who objected were slapped. Adoptees told the panel that they were reprimanded for asking about their pasts and that when they did get an answer, they were sometimes told – falsely – that their mothers had given them away. The commission said the state should apologize because it is responsible for the conduct of public sector employees such as the NHS and “the policies and laws of the time, as well as the omissions of policy and law, which allowed these practices”. Harriet Harman MP, chair of JCHR, said: “The mothers’ only ‘crime’ was that they became pregnant while single. Their “punishment” was a life of secrecy and pain. They were told that they had “given” their baby up for adoption, when they had not done so. Their child grew up saying that their mother had given them to them. “Mothers had to endure a harsh double dose of shame. Firstly, the shame of getting pregnant out of wedlock and secondly, when society’s attitude towards single mothers changed, they were judged as not supposed to care for their babies and gave up their baby. “These adoptions would never happen now and they shouldn’t have happened then. They did nothing wrong, but they wronged themselves. The Joint Committee on Human Rights recognizes the serious wrong being done to these mothers and their children. It is time for the government to do the same and apologize.” As well as urging the government to issue a formal apology, the JCHR says it should do more to support those facing the lifelong consequences, including improving access to counseling for those affected by the legacy of adoption practices and removing obstacles to access to adoption documents. A government spokesman said: “We have our deepest sympathies with all those affected by the historic forced adoption. “While we cannot undo the past, we have strengthened our legislation and practice to be based on empathy, from NHS maternity services caring for vulnerable women and babies, to our work transforming the adoption process and the care system to help children settle into stable homes. “Help is available for those affected by past adoption practices, including tracing children or birth parents.”
