Committee Corridor: Heart-breaking trauma of adoption practices between 1949-76 laid bare in latest episode

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The special guests are Ann Keen, former MP for Brentford and Isleworth, who became pregnant in 1966 aged 17, and Liz Harvie who was adopted as a baby in 1974. This edition of the podcast also hears from Harriet Harman KC MP who chaired the Joint Committee on Human Rights while it undertook an inquiry into the lasting legacy of these practices, publishing its report The Violation of Family Life: Adoption of Children of Unmarried Women 1949–1976 in July 2022. The former Chair explains how the Joint Committee’s inquiry was able to give the women space to speak about their experiences, and to be heard.

Between 1949 and 1976, in England and Wales an estimated 185,000 children were taken from unmarried mothers who did not want to let them go and adopted. Women and girls who became pregnant outside of marriage during these decades were seen as having shamed themselves and their families. Families and institutions, including schools, churches, social and healthcare workers, prioritised hiding what was regarded as a shameful situation rather than providing emotional and medical support, in many cases sending unmarried mothers far away from where they lived so their pregnancy could remain a secret from their family and community.

Ann explains the stigma of becoming an unmarried mother in that era, the challenge of telling her parents and the lack of agency in decisions around her and her baby’s future.

“I was terrified. I was so anxious that this would have a disastrous effect on my parents and my family. And I knew this, and I tried very hard almost to pretend it wasn't happening. But of course, the reality was I was pregnant. And I felt ashamed, I felt I'd let everybody down.”

“So, you start being coerced into believing that you cannot have this baby, keep this baby, and this baby will go to a home with a mother and a father. And this home will love your baby and care for your baby so much better than me because you won't have any money. Where will you live?”

Liz Harvie spoke about the legacy for the children of unmarried mothers who were adopted at this time and the challenges that continued into adult life. She also called for more support to find family histories, highlighting that not knowing a family history can mean not knowing about serious health conditions.

“It's the same for the babies that then grow up as the mothers — loss, rejection, guilt, shame, grief, lack of identity, impaired sense of self-worth, struggles with trust and intimacy.”

“I discovered after having genetic testing, age 43, and I'm only 49 now — I discovered that I have a genetically inherited condition, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Now, if my adopted parents had been given access to my birth family's medical history from the start, my condition would've been picked up earlier in my life. But instead, it was discovered too late for me to manage it well.”

A key recommendation of the Joint Committee on Human Rights was for the Government to issue a formal apology for what happened. Harriet Harman explained:

“Ultimately, Government is in charge of all of these processes, either by what they do or by what they fail to do. So, they're responsible for adoption legislation or the lack of it.”

“We recognise that the loss of a child is one of the worst things that can happen to somebody. And it's quite strange that in this case, because there was a great weight of moral disapproval of a girl having sex outside of marriage and getting pregnant, somehow, the recognition of the dreadful scale of this loss was simply wiped out.”

Chair's quote

The deadline for the Government’s response to the Joint Committee’s report is now overdue.  At the end of January 2023, the current Chair, Joanna Cherry KC MP, wrote to the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan MP, to seek a response without delay, and said:

“The continued hurt felt by the women and adopted people who so generously and courageously gave testimony to the committee is being compounded by the undue delay in the Government response.”

Further Information

• About Parliament: Select committees
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Image: Andrew Bailey, UK Parliament