Time running out' for government apology over forced adoptions

Time is running out for the government to issue a formal apology to women forced to give up their babies for adoption in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, campaigners have warned.

- Harriet Sherwood

Most of the estimated 185,000 mothers involved are now in their 70s and 80s and some have died without an apology on behalf of the state.

Many pinned their hopes on the Labour government after the previous Conservative administration said in 2023 that a formal apology would not be appropriate. But despite strong cross-party support for such a move, ministers have failed to act.

"Time is of the essence," said Karen Constantine of the Movement for an Adoption Apology and the author of Taken: Experiences of Forced Adoption.

"The value of an apology would be immensely healing and resolve unimaginable pain endured for decades by an ageing cohort of women who had their babies taken from them."

Veronica Smith, one of the co-founders of the MAA, died last year aged 83. The loss of her daughter in a forced adoption in 1964 had "coloured" the whole of her life, she said.