More than 150,000 young women across Australia had their children taken from them at birth without their consent, a new documentary has shown.
An investigation into the practice by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has uncovered how for years young and usually unmarried women were subjected to forced adoptions in Catholic-run hospitals that resulted in them never seeing their child again.
Many interviewees told ABC they had their legs shackled and were drugged during their labour. The majority were prevented from seeing their children being born or even holding them afterwards.
Many of the women said they believed their children had been selected for forced adoption long before their birth and they were warned they could not oppose the decision.
In the aftermath of the shocking investigation the Australian Catholic Church issued a national apology, saying in a statement that its history of forced adoptions was 'deeply regrettable.'
'We acknowledge the pain of separation and loss felt then and felt now by the mothers, fathers, children, families and others involved in the practices of the time,' the apology read. 'For this pain we are genuinely sorry.'
In a report quoted in The Daily Telegraph, Juliette Clough - one of the young woman interviewed by ABC - told the inquiry she was just 16 years when she gave birth to her son in a Catholic hospital in 1970.
'My ankles were strapped to the bed, they were in stirrups and I was gassed, I had plenty of gas and they just snatched away the baby.
'You weren't allowed to see him or touch him, anything like that, or hold him and it was just like a piece of my soul had died and it's still dead.'
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Read More:
Full scale of illegal adoptions remains unknown says Health Minister
How 3-year-old boy was stolen from mother by Irish nuns and sold for adoption into U.S.
No surprise Irish babies of single mothers were guinea pigs for drug testing
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Lily Arthur, now a member of the forced adoption support group Origins NSW, was 17 and a ward of the state when she gave birth in 1967. She agreed to give up her child under threat of being imprisoned.
'When we were going to deliver the child we were put in a position where we couldn't see the delivery of the child. After my son was born I was nearly knocked unconscious and transported to a ward without my child.'
Some women reportedly lost more than one child to the program, their children been sent away to families deemed more suitable by the Church.
An Australian federal parliamentary inquiry is currently investigating the forced adoption legacy and has received more than 300 submissions from across the country already.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.supersurvivor77 | Sep 04, 2011, 06:29 PM EDT
CATHOLICABUSESURVIVORSNI.COM---nothing new here they dispersed siblings in children homes , adopted them and future birth siblings , they raped and tortured them, with the irish and british goverments as partners in it all through their social services boards on a daily basis , and worse world wide ,
seanomelbourne | Aug 28, 2011, 07:22 PM EDT
You are correct JT.I do not have a suspicious nature but sometimes I feel that the Catholic church is being pushed into the limelight to take the heat off other religious and state institutions.
JOHNTOBIN | Aug 28, 2011, 02:01 AM EDT
This did not only occur in Catholic institutions.I think you would find it it was common practice in State institutions throughout the western world.
Liamkeyes | Aug 27, 2011, 07:59 PM EDT
Wayward Girls???? Was there any Wayward Men?????
hawkeye44 | Aug 27, 2011, 07:06 PM EDT
The church also done this in Ieland, I was told by a Cork man the homes for wayward girls were like concentration camps.
seanomelbourne | Aug 27, 2011, 07:04 PM EDT
The Australian government conducted an abhorrent policy of forcibly removing aboriginal children from their parents and placing them in Catholic and anglican missions. The forced migration of unwanted children from britain after the war to Australia where they were placed in the care of christian orphanages where in some cases they were brutalised.Pedophilia,rape and torture took place in these homes run by anglicans and catholics.
irishcan73 | Aug 27, 2011, 05:38 PM EDT
is there no end to the lives they have ruined
Tropiholic | Aug 27, 2011, 05:31 PM EDT
another shameful disgrace courtesy of the catholic church.
pilib04 | Aug 27, 2011, 02:55 PM EDT
The hierarchy is only sorry that the word got out. The same happened in Ireland except the Holy Mother the Church sold the infants to the highest bidder. There has to be a day of reckoning for our Church. This attitude that its past history is WRONG> It's like when I was in school years ago and at that time they taught the Inquisition as a good thing.
bunkerisland | Aug 27, 2011, 12:20 PM EDT
I don't reporting on real events is "bashing" Catholics but rather the reporting of another event within the Catholic Church that disregards the impact on children and their mothers. All for the greater good of course! By now most of us realized the Church's definition of greater good generally includes exploitation of the membership.
joan1954 | Aug 27, 2011, 12:10 PM EDT
Anti-Catholic bashing again. We are seeing that it occured in Anglican (C of I) homes as well. Given the ages of some of these women, didn't their parents consent to some of this and if so why isn't that being brought to light?
Pittsburghkid | Aug 27, 2011, 11:57 AM EDT
Another Catholic Hate story. The Australian government had a program where Aborginal children were taken from their families. Is this the same story? Were Protestant Hospitals involve in this practice? Was this sanctioned by the government of Australia?
cillowen | Aug 27, 2011, 09:43 AM EDT
the power of eve's forbidden fruit gets their adams all worked up and then the crazy church distributes their product. Is such a religion about a reject worthy of being idolized. But, then, Boy's Town did some good.
Collette2 | Jul 29, 2011, 12:24 AM EDT
mcbreen, how about the babies left at Catholic hospitals indeed! Where else would these mothers go? To a presbytery? With so many infants fathered by clergy it would have been a good start anyway.
mcbreen | Jul 27, 2011, 03:34 PM EDT
What about the babies that the mother's left in garbage cans or at the doorsteps of Catholic hospitals by the thousands? Should the Church have left them to die as their mother's did? Where is an example of ONE mother who would rather have her child back than a potential cash settlement? And BTW, the old Maria Monk canard was rejected IN IT'S DAY by thinking people. Would that there would be more of them today.
Portia777 | Jul 27, 2011, 12:07 PM EDT
how about exposing the same practice from Eire - remember all those babies sold to rich couples in USA and their birth certs being altered.? Do I sense an enquiry?
phoenixnurse | Jul 27, 2011, 12:05 PM EDT
A "wee bit" late for any apology...the traumatic damage has been done! If there is any way to locate these children, through adoption records and reunite them with their birth Mother, it would be a starting point to demonstrate the decades pain the church caused these women. There has to be records of who the church approved these adoptions to. The Catholic Church just did not give them away and not keep records. It would be interesting to see how much money the Church made off of these forced adoptions. An apology in no way "cuts the mustard"...this is a criminal offense!
Portia777 | Jul 27, 2011, 12:03 PM EDT
The Roman church is not sorry- only sorry the truth came to light, that's all.it was the same in USA- with Georgia Tann THE BABY THIEF and her Judges, lawyers etc, all in on the act and making a profit from selling children to needy adults. It is now a worldwide business and we know it.
Portia777 | Jul 27, 2011, 12:00 PM EDT
The RForced adoption is alive and well in many countries in 2011. Just about to be introduced to Eire. This soul destroying practice is still in place- because adoption is big business with a steady supply of NEEDY childless women and men.The soul of the mother and child are fragmented in the process- AND THAT IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
creed08 | Jul 27, 2011, 10:55 AM EDT
The catholic church is always "sorry" for the horrendous pain and suffering they inflict on it's followers. Sometimes sorry just doesn't cut it when they have the morals of a streetwalker and the compassion and empathy of a donkey. Instead of being "sorry", do the right thing from the beginning and don't act morally superior to people who are so far above the church in love and compassion.
mcbreen | Jul 27, 2011, 10:22 AM EDT
Thank you Ms. Kelly for your expose of our dark and barbarous religion. If only Ian Paisley had your jounalistic skill, we could have known so much earlier about this cult that has been so treasonous to our British Isles, for so many years.