Church of England apologises for role in forced adoptions

The Church of England has made a long-awaited apology for its role in forced adoptions after the second world war. Hundreds of thousands of children were forcibly separated from their mothers in the UK between the 1940s and the 1980s. Survivors testify to suffering abuse, neglect and lifelong trauma. Anglican mother and baby homes were part of a network of institutions – alongside Catholic and Salvation Army homes – where unmarried women were sent to give birth in secret before being compelled to hand their babies over to married couples for adoption. The archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said on Thursday: “We are 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. “We have heard first-hand the accounts of mothers who were separated from their babies in circumstances where they had very few meaningful choices. “We know that many women and girls were at times made to carry out menial and manual work as a form of ‘correction’. “We also recognise where prejudice – including on the grounds of race and disability – shaped and defined experiences and outcomes.” Phil Frampton, a survivor and campaigner from Manchester, was born in an Anglican institution – Rosemundy mother and baby home in St Agnes, Cornwall – in 1953, because his parents had been in a mixed-heritage relationship. …