Church of England to apologise for role in historical forced adoption

Church of England to apologise for role in historical forced adoption8 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleDuncan KennedyandAnna LamcheGettyThe BBC has learned that the Church of England is planning to issue an apology for its role in historical forced adoption.Forced adoptions took place in the three decades after World War Two and involved tens of thousands of babies being taken from their mothers simply because the women were unmarried.The Church ran around a hundred mother and baby homes across England where unmarried pregnant women would be sent, in effect, to hide them from society.The BBC has seen a draft of an apology prepared by the Church, in which says "we are deeply sorry".One of those women was Jan Doyle. In 1963, at 16-years-old, she was unmarried and became pregnant.She was sent to a mother and baby home in Kent and recalled what she said were the "harsh" conditions of the home."If the floors needed washing, we would have to get down on our hands and knees, even though we were pregnant," she said." I think I was down on my hands and knees the day before my son was born."Jan Doyle was one of around 200,000 women in England and Wales coerced into giving up their babies during the 1950s, 60s and 70sJan's baby boy, David, was taken from her a few weeks after she gave birth. They were reunited after 63 years, when he reached out to her, and now see each other on quite a regular basis.Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) investigated historical forced adoptions after the BBC first reported on the issue back in 2021. The committee concluded that around 185,000 babies were caught up in forced adoptions between 1949 and 1976.Not all the birth mothers went through a Church of England mother and baby home. Others were run by different Church and welfare groups.In an early draft of the Church's apology, seen by the BBC, the Church said: "We acknowledge the lifelong impact of thes...