https://greenworld.org.uk/article/forced-adoptions-apology-another-government-failureForced adoptions apology: Another Government failure
Between 1949 and 1976, hundreds of thousands of women in England and Wales were subjected to ‘a human rights abuse in plain sight’ forced adoptions. Green peer Natalie Bennett calls for an apology from the Government.
Houses of Parliament
Natalie Bennett
Wed 15 Mar 2023
Between 1949 and 1976, hundreds of thousands of women in England and Wales were subjected to ‘a human rights abuse in plain sight’. This is how Labour’s Harriet Harman summarised the results of a Parliamentary inquiry into the thousands of forced adoptions which took place in that time period. Ms. Harman is well placed to comment, having chaired the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) which undertook the inquiry into this violation of so many women’s and children’s right to family life.
A formal apology is something that I and the Green Party of England and Wales have been calling for for over a decade saying back in 2011 that the Government should ‘acknowledge the mistakes of the past and the huge amount of suffering caused by these practices’. This human rights abuse was perpetrated by church and state actors, against approximately 185,000 women simply because they were pregnant and unmarried.
This month the Government has again thrown aside the consistent calls for an apology, in a response to the inquiry that the UK Adult Adoptee’s Association described as ‘cowardly’ and ‘pathetic’, and that the Movement for an Adoption Apology described as ‘an insult’.
The UK Government said: ‘we do not think it is appropriate for a formal Government apology to be given, since the state did not actively support these practices’. But the JCHR report addresses this head on: “The Government is responsible for the conduct of employees of the State as well as […] the policies and laws of the time, as well as the omissions of policy and law, that allowed these practices. The Government therefore bears responsibility for what happened”.
This sentiment is echoed by Ann Keen (herself a mother whose child was taken shortly after birth and previously the MP for Brentford and Isleworth), who points out that ‘only the Government can apologise’ for the failings of previous administrations. Having been denied pain control medication during labour ‘so you’ll remember the pain and you won’t do it again’, she continues to call on the Government to officially apologise and meaningfully engage with the JCHR’s recommendations.
In the words of Liz Harvie, founder of the Adult Adoption Movement and a child separated from her birth mother at only 10 days, ‘a formal apology is the very least’ that the Government could do. However, as well as stopping short of proposing a formal apology from the Prime Minister, the response also fails to establish concrete frameworks for redress.
This situation is not unique to the UK. Women in an array of Commonwealth nations were subjected to the same abuse: an Australian Senate inquiry found that hundreds of thousands of adoptions had taken place between 1951 and 1976 alone, with a large proportion considered forced; after extensive lobbying, New Zealand will soon complete its ‘Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions’; and the Senate of Canada has published its report into forced adoptions of unmarried mothers called ‘The Shame is Ours’.
While women and children were subjected to this historical abuse in all these countries, there are key differences in how each one has responded in the present day. Australia stands alone as having not only issued a formal national apology to those affected, but also taken concrete steps by allocating $11.5M of dedicated funding for redress. The Government of New Zealand ‘considers that it is most appropriate to wait’ until June 2023, when the final results of the Royal Commission will be published, before even considering an apology or redress.
Victims of this historical abuse in the UK, both mothers and children, have been hurting for far too long. The Green Party believes that the Government should address the concerns of victim groups like the Adult Adoption Movement, the Movement for Adoption Apology, and the JCHR itself. No one is satisfied with the lacklustre non-apology that the Government has provided, and many of the issues raised by these groups – both regarding historical abuse and the current adoption system remain. It is time for the Government to take a hard look in the mirror and meaningfully reckon with the past, and present, of adoption in England and Wales.
This article was prepared with the assistance of Paul-Enguerrand Fady.
