Church of England to apologize for role in decades-long forced adoptions: Report

LONDON

The Church of England will issue an apology for its role in forced adoptions that took place in the three decades after World War II, according to a report published Wednesday.

In its report, the BBC said it has seen a draft of an apology prepared by the Church, in which it says “we are deeply sorry.”

The historic forced adoptions included tens of thousands of babies being taken from their mothers because the women were unmarried for nearly 30 years.

The Church ran about 100 mother and baby homes across England, where unmarried pregnant women would be sent, in effect, to hide them from society.
One of those women was Jan Doyle, who was 16 years old in 1963 and was unmarried when she became pregnant, said the report.

Doyle was sent to a mother-and-baby home in Kent and recalled what she said were the "harsh" conditions of the home.

Her baby boy, David, was taken from her a few weeks after she gave birth, and they were reunited only after 63 years.

In an investigation, Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has concluded that around 185,000 babies were caught up in forced adoptions between 1949 and 1976.