DOWNLOAD our RECOMMENDATIONS for a FORMAL APOLOGY
Established in 2010, our campaign is run entirely by volunteers with lived experience.
MAA is a UK based non-profit organisation campaigning for mothers and babies who were separated by the forced adoption practices implemented between WW2 and the late 1980s. During those decades, vulnerable unwed mothers were bullied and coerced so their babies could be taken for adoption.
We estimate that at least 500,000 people, are affected, probably more. This includes mothers, their babies – now adult adoptees, fathers, and family members. It is worth noting that not all babies who were separated from their mothers went on to be adopted.
The impact of adoption-related trauma ripples through the generations.
We seek a formal government apology for the many injustices and human-rights contraventions that took place. This apology must be bolstered by a raft of reparation measures. These must include access to records, appropriate fully funded support including mental health services, assistance with searching and with reunion to ensure that these fractured relationships can endure.
Cruel and callous treatment at the hands of Church organisations, Social Services and medical professionals in the NHS must be acknowledged.
These practices were enabled and funded by the State, to ensure the supply of babies for prospective adopters.
Unmarried mothers were unsupported then, and remain so now. There is nothing available to help women living with this trauma, and the profound impact on adoptees has been almost entirely ignored.
We want a formal apology similar to that issued in 2013 by Australian PM, Julia Gillard, who apologised unreservedly to mothers, adoptees, fathers and families impacted by forced adoption in Australia. She promised that money would be set aside to ensure the provision of extensive support for those whose lives had been blighted.
We will not rest until we have justice.
