The Department for Education said it took the issue ‘extremely seriously’ and would continue to engage with and provide support for people affected, ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker reports
Women affected by the forced adoption scandal have staged a protest at Westminster, demanding a formal government apology. In the decades after World War II, an estimated 250,000 women had their children taken and adopted because they were unmarried. Women claim their suffering, shame and trauma have been ignored by successive governments.
A human rights joint committee recommended a formal apology in July 2022, prompting the Welsh and Scottish governments to apologise to people affected by forced adoptions. But the UK government has not. Three years later, dozens of people travelled to Westminster to make their voices heard. Zara Phillips, who was adopted as a baby, organised the protest. Her mother was 17, unmarried and pregnant, and was sent away to a mother and baby home in north London to give birth in secret. Initially, Zara was put in foster care “because they needed to check there was nothing physically wrong with us” before she was placed for adoption.
Even today, she is still fighting to get full access to her adoption files and medical records. “At my age, I want all my records. Even just things like not knowing the time I was born.”