Key facts
- The UK government will formally apologize for forced adoptions.
- The apology acknowledges the state's role in separating unmarried mothers from their children.
- This practice occurred for decades, ending in the 1970s.
- An estimated 185,000 babies were adopted under these circumstances in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976.
- Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver the apology in the House of Commons.
The British government is set to issue a formal apology for the state's role in decades of forced adoptions, a practice that separated tens of thousands of unmarried mothers from their babies until the 1970s. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver the statement in the House of Commons, acknowledging the state's involvement and apologizing to survivors.
This reckoning with past social norms and government policies follows similar acknowledgments in other countries. In England and Wales alone, an estimated 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were adopted between 1949 and 1976. Campaigners have long advocated for recognition of the pressure, deception, and threats women faced when relinquishing their children.
Ann Keen, a former U.K. health minister who experienced forced adoption at age 17 in 1966, expressed her anticipation for the apology, stating it offers an opportunity to 'put this wrong right.' The apology comes after Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights recommended in 2022 that the British state apologize for the pain caused by public institutions.
While the semiautonomous governments of Scotland and Wales issued apologies in 2023, the Conservative U.K. government at the time declined. The Church of England also recently offered a profound apology for its part in historical adoption practices.
Globally, Australia delivered a national apology for forced adoptions in 2013, and Ireland has been confronting the legacy of its mother-and-baby homes, where thousands of children died. Prime Minister Micheál Martin apologized for the 'profound and generational wrong' associated with these institutions.