Plight of former MP from Deeside highlighted in Commons Debate on forced adoption

MPs have urged the prime minister Theresa May to apologise “on behalf of the nation” to the hundreds of thousands of women who were forced to hand over babies for adoption in the Fifties, Sixties and early Seventies.

Part of Britain’s hidden history, the widespread practice saw unmarried mothers and their babies forcibly separated because of family rejection and social disapproval.

It is estimated that around half a million British women were coerced into having their babies adopted by ‘moral welfare workers’ the fore runners to modern day social workers, or ended up in “Draconian” mother and baby homes run by religious bodies.

A motion tabled by a group of cross-party backbench MPs calls for recognition of “the suffering that forced child adoptions during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s caused, which took place owing to social pressures on women who had children outside marriage.”

During a debate last Thursday in the Commons, Wirral South Labour MP Alison McGovern, who has led demands for a prime ministerial apology, fought back tears as she recounted the story of Mrs Ann Keen, the former MP for Brentford and Isleworth.

Hawarden born Ann Keen was Gordon Brown’s Parliamentary Private Secretary during his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Before she came to the House, she was an NHS nurse and later became a Health Minister in government.

Ann Keen was in the Commons to hear Thursday’s debate.

Alison McGovern MP said:

“I have come to see that Ann’s story is typical of many. Ann’s dad was a steelworker at Shotton, which is quite near my constituency, and the family were not at all wealthy.

Ann became unexpectedly pregnant in 1966, when an older man with whom she worked forced himself upon her.

Her family were horrified and the decision was taken that she would move away, where she would meet a local moral welfare worker—that is what social workers used to be called—and it was just assumed that the baby would be adopted.

This moral welfare worker told Ann that the baby would cause her family hardship. She was told that, if she loved the baby, she would give it away. She was told it was for the best.

Ann ended up in what we think was a home run by the Swansea and Brecon moral welfare association.”

McGovern continued:

“From speaking to lots of others who have gone through this, I understand that that was very common.

From the many stories of women who were treated just like Ann, there is one consistent impression: it seems obvious that those in positions of power with whom the women came into contact felt that the women ought to be punished.

It is almost as if there was an unwritten policy that women ought to be treated badly.”

McGovern said

“We owe it to that generation of women to ask who decided that they should be treated in that way.

Why were the homes run like that? Whose policy was it?”

Most of the women the Wirral South MP has spoken say they experienced forced adoption gave birth in the NHS.

McGovern said

“The national health service, which we rightly venerate, is part of this story. The midwives gave the impression to the mums that they knew the babies would be adopted.

The women to whom I have spoken have a consistent history of treatment during labour, in that pain relief was withheld.

If stitches were required after the birth, as they often are, it was done in the most uncomfortable way possible.

Ann, who later became a nurse, as I said, told me that in hospital she realised she was absolutely powerless.”

After the birth, mothers were often told not to get too attached to their baby as it would be adopted, contact with the baby was controlled and restricted in many cases, Ms McGovern said:

“These women were made to feel ashamed of their bodies and of their pregnancies, and that culture of shame was perpetrated by officialdom in one guise or another.”

The Government rejected demands for a public inquiry into forced adoption last August.

In response to the debate, Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi, said the no one disputes the women were victims of poor adoption practice all those years ago:

“But I believe that it is unlikely that a public inquiry would uncover new facts.

We believe that the lessons of the time have been learned and have led to significant change both to legislation and practice now.”

The motion was approved unopposed.