British Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally apologized Thursday to women and their children caught up in an historic forced adoptions scandal in England and Wales over almost three-decade long period between the 1950s and 1970s. File Photo Betty Laura Zapata/EPA
July 2 (UPI) -- Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologized in person Thursday to women and some of their children who were caught up in an historic forced adoptions scandal in England and Wales dating back to the 1950s through the 1970s.
Stamer issued a formal apology on behalf of the British state, calling the taking of an estimated 185,000 babies from unmarried women, railroaded into allowing their children to be put up for adoption, a "stain on our history."
The shame is not yours. The shame was never yours. The shame is ours," he said in a statement to the House of Commons after earlier hosting a group of survivors in Downing Street.
"Mothers, many young, vulnerable, and without support were coerced, bullied, or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them. What a thing to do," he said.
