Forced adoption and the need for lifelong support

The Government’s apology for historic forced adoption practices in England is a significant and long-overdue moment. For many of the mothers, adopted people and wider families affected, it comes after decades of grief, silence and unanswered questions.

An estimated half a million children were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976, many of them born to unmarried mothers. Not every adoption during this period was forced, but parliamentary inquiries and testimony from those affected have documented practices in which women were denied meaningful choice or did not give genuine and informed consent.

State bodies, medical professionals, charities and church organisations all played roles within the systems through which these practices occurred. Christian organisations ran mother and baby homes, moral welfare organisations and adoption agencies. The Church must therefore approach this history with honesty and humility, listening first to those whose lives were permanently changed.