UK to apologise for decades of forced adoptions of babies born to unmarried mothers

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday formally apologised for the state's role in separating tens of thousands of unmarried mothers from their babies through forced adoptions, describing the practice as "a stain on our history."

Addressing Parliament, Starmer acknowledged the suffering inflicted on mothers and children over decades and said, "We are deeply and profoundly sorry."

An estimated 185,000 babies born to unmarried mothers were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976. Campaigners have long argued that many women were coerced, deceived or threatened into surrendering their children for adoption.

Before delivering the apology, Starmer met a group of campaigners, who later watched his statement from the public gallery of the House of Commons.

He said many women had been "coerced, bullied or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them."

"Children grew up believing they were unwanted," Starmer said, while mothers were told "their babies would be better off without them."

"To every one of those affected, we say a deep and heartfelt sorry," he added.

Alongside the apology, Starmer announced measures to support affected mothers and children, including improved access to adoption records and expanded mental health services.

Britain is among several countries confronting the legacy of social attitudes, religious influence and government policies that stigmatised unmarried mothers, confined many to institutions during pregnancy and pressured them into giving up their babies for adoption by married couples.

Ann Keen, a former UK health minister whose baby was taken for adoption in 1966 when she was 17, welcomed the apology.

"We need this apology, because we have always been accused of giving up our babies, and we didn't give them up," she told the BBC. "We've now got the opportunity to really put this wrong right."

The apology follows years of campaigning for official recognition. In 2022, Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the government to apologise for "the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions."

While the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales issued apologies in 2023, the then Conservative government declined to do so, arguing that "the state did not actively support these practices."

Rejecting that position, Starmer said forced adoptions were the result of "practices embedded within systems" spanning local government, religious institutions and the health and social care sectors.

"The state bears responsibility for the systems it funded and legitimised which enabled these practices to occur," he said.

The Labour government's apology comes two weeks after the Church of England apologised for its role in historical forced adoptions.

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally said the Church was "profoundly sorry for the pain, trauma and stigma experienced — and still carried — by many people because of historical adoption practices in homes affiliated to the Church of England."

Britain joins other countries that have acknowledged similar historical injustices. In 2013, then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard issued a landmark national apology for the country's history of forced adoptions and the "lifelong legacy of pain and suffering" they caused.

Ireland has also confronted the legacy of Catholic Church-run mother-and-baby homes, where tens of thousands of women lived in often degrading conditions. A 2021 inquiry found that around 9,000 children died in 18 such institutions during the 20th century. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin later apologised for what he described as the "profound and generational wrong" inflicted on mothers and their children.