Forced adoptions: Welsh government to apologiseon April 24, 2023 at 10:00 pm

The Welsh government is to formally apologise to mothers forced to give away their children.

Thousands of unmarried women were subjected to forced adoptions in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

Speaking in the Senedd, Deputy Social Services Minister Julie Morgan will say sorry for the failures in society that led to the practice.

The move was welcomed by campaigners who said the UK government should follow suit.

One Welsh woman who was forcibly adopted she felt “robbed” of her culture after she was taken from a Welsh-speaking mother.

It is likely that thousands of children in Wales were forcibly adopted – a UK Parliament inquiry estimated that 185,000 babies were affected across England and Wales.

The joint committee on human rights of MPs and peers found many women were shamed and coerced into giving up their children.

The Welsh government’s decision comes a month after Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s apology on the same issue, and ten years after Australia said sorry for the practice.

Anne Jones, from Glan Conwy, was adopted as a baby by a family in Llandudno in the 1950s. Her birth mother, Katie Green, from Caernarfon, had her outside of marriage at the age of 36.

She told BBC Wales last year that her mother had “no choice” but to give her up due to “shame” and no financial support.

She said her adoptive family made her feel that she “was illegitimate and therefore wasn’t good enough”.

Although she located her brother, who had stayed with his mother, she was only able to find out who her mother was years after she died.

Ms Jones, 71, has been among those campaigning for a formal UK government apology.

She welcomed the Welsh government’s decision but was disappointed that it was not happening at the UK level.

“One of the things that every adopted person will tell you is: you feel you don’t know who you are.

“You don’t know whether there’s anybody else in the world who looks like you.”

Ms Jones, who grew up in Llandudno, said she had been “robbed” of her culture.

“My mother was Welsh, and because she lived and was born and brought up in Caernarfon, she was Welsh speaking. That’s something I missed out on.”

She added: “I feel sorry for the people in England who have not had their apology yet, because I feel they are being discriminated against.

“It’s a stigma that is put on people. It shouldn’t have happened and they should be receiving an apology.”

Mothers told the joint committee inquiry they felt their treatment during and after giving birth was deliberate punishment for their pregnancy while unmarried.

Young women were sent away from home to conceal their pregnancies and spent weeks in mother and baby homes.

Many women said they were abused by social workers, nurses and other staff, and denied pain relief.

The Welsh government and the Senedd did not exist at the time forced adoptions were taking place.

The UK government, which fully governed Wales until 1999, rejected the committee’s calls for a formal apology in its response to its findings.

While it said the treatment of women and children was wrong and should not have happened, ministers said an apology would not be appropriate “since the state did not actively support these practices”.

However it said it was “sorry on behalf of society to all those affected”.

Veronica Smith, the founder of the Movement for an Adoption Apology, welcomed the announcement.

She said the UK government “should now follow the example of Welsh and Scottish governments”.

“They claim that the state weren’t involved but we have lots of academic research that the state was,” she said.

Family acceptance remains an issue, she said.

“Few people in Wales have come forward but we expect many more to be out there. It’s still a very painful thing and shame is involved”.”It will be a great relief to those affected that it’s being talked about publicly at last,” she added.

Julie Morgan gave an apology in a personal capacity in January.

The deputy minister said that while forced adoption practices predated devolution in Wales, “they have a lasting legacy on all those who experienced them – for both the parents and the children”.

“We cannot change what has happened, but I can provide assurances that adoption legislation and practices have been significantly strengthened since and we will strive to provide as much support as we can.”

Ms Morgan will deliver her statement in the Welsh Parliament late afternoon on Tuesday.

The UK government has been approached for comment.