UK’s PM apologises to victims of forced adoptions

LONDON: British Prime ⁠Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday apologised to women forced to ​give up their babies ​and to those separated from their mothers at birth by a system of forced adoptions that targeted unmarried women in the decades after World War Two.
An estimated 185,000 children were separated from their mothers ⁠in Britain. Starmer apologised on behalf of the ⁠state for the lifelong trauma it had caused.“On behalf of the whole country, I say it to every single person impacted: we are ‌deeply and profoundly sorry,” Starmer told ​parliament. Between 1949 and ⁠1976, the British state and Christian churches ​created a system in which young women with children outside of marriage were shamed and coerced into ​giving up their babies to comply with the social norms of the time. The Church of England apologised for its role last month, acknowledging its involvement in running so-called “mother and baby homes” where unmarried women were sent, often against their will, during pregnancy ​or after giving birth and separated from their babies.
— Reuters