Imagine being forced to give up a baby for adoption that you wanted to keep | ABC News

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ABC News In-depth

ABC News In-depth

5 жыл бұрын

Imagine being forced to give up a baby for adoption that you wanted to keep.
This was the distressing reality for thousands of Australian women and girls back in the 1950s to 1980s, such was the stigma of having a baby outside of wedlock.
In 2013, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard issued a national apology for the loss and the grief suffered by those affected by forced adoption.
But still the fight goes on for greater recognition and compensation.
Dorelle Downs and Margaret Hamilton share their harrowing experiences and their ongoing efforts for justice.
Read more here: www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-2...
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Пікірлер: 101
@Lisselle.
@Lisselle. 5 жыл бұрын
This happened to my beautiful mother with her firstborn child in 1959. She was drugged and gave birth barely conscious, and was not allowed to look at her baby, or hold it. She wasn’t told it’s gender. (At a hospital in Sydney.) Sadly my mother died in 1995. She told my sister and I on her deathbed that she’d had a baby before we were born, she carried the grief and shame alone. I cannot imagine how she suffered, my heart still breaks for her loss. My sister and I found out we have an older sister somewhere, but we have never been able to find her.
@falconrising27
@falconrising27 Жыл бұрын
This happened to my Mum and older half sister in 1959 in Melbourne. They put a heat lamp on her vagina after she had Margaret Jane which burnt her. Then they drugged her and got her to sign the consent form or forged it as she has no memory of doing it either. My Father was going to marry Mum and bring MJ up as his own child but she was stolen. Mum searched endlessly to find her and was heartbroken every time MJ's birthday came around. Before she died she made us promise to continue to search for her. We finally did find her. She'd had a traumatic childhood till she was 4 years old in an orphanage (Of course Mum was told she'd be adopted by a good family). When she was adopted she said she had a terrible childhood and when we met her she was quite jealous and distraught that we had grown up with both parents that should have been hers. Two lives ruined, Mum's and hers.
@catherinecarella2928
@catherinecarella2928 4 ай бұрын
You can find her. You just need the right help.
@aussiewarriorwithbpd9380
@aussiewarriorwithbpd9380 2 ай бұрын
@Liselle If you contact adoption services in your state/territory, they can help you track them down.
@steveascension9626
@steveascension9626 3 жыл бұрын
This was a crime against humanity.
@joaquinolveraalmazan4620
@joaquinolveraalmazan4620 5 жыл бұрын
There should be no status of limitations in cases like this. They should be compensated, both mothers and children, even fathers who would have been willing to take responsibility of the babies. How cruel !!
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
Maternal trauma ❤️‍🩹
@keepitallthewayfunky3448
@keepitallthewayfunky3448 5 жыл бұрын
Happened to my mom in 1964 in Canada.. Thanks to her father. Told her he died , healthy babies don’t die at 2 days.. my poor mom.. God bless
@auschick8176
@auschick8176 5 жыл бұрын
Truly heartbreaking, I’m so sorry to the mums and babies stolen from each other’s lives.
@susancolman7911
@susancolman7911 9 ай бұрын
Thanks😔
@elizabethbrown8833
@elizabethbrown8833 Ай бұрын
I went to the US to visit my son Jeffrey twice, he'd been adopted illegally into a white child baby scam. the first time I visited. I was given his alleged room, and he was made to sleep in the couples dirty basement in a big old hospital iron bed, the next time was in Lexington SC at his alleged partner Tiffany's trailer, the situation I walked into was so bad I had a breakdown on my return home. It was really really shocking. Every time I hear trump I think of my son, and others like him. They live in Mansfield Ohio now. Married soon after I left. But I feel that was to keep my son trapped. He wanted to take me to church when there but the gas was drained out of his car. I pray for him all the time. He's in his early forties now. I often wonder if I have grandchildren. I'll never know. Breaks my heart they'd be born into that hellish environment. 💕💔
@michaelbiggins7533
@michaelbiggins7533 5 жыл бұрын
Viewed from the other side- I met my birth mother 40 years later- on two more visits to UK and a couple of months sharing some time in the Oxford countryside - I kissed her goodbye early in the morning I left for Heathrow-- she passed away not long after I returned to Australia --- I share this because it is possible to see some good- My Mother was not able to keep me as a single mum in immediate post war Britain- I had a far better life than she could have given me- My adoptive parents were open about it - and that was a big plus!
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing 🙏
@freelanceopportunist559
@freelanceopportunist559 3 жыл бұрын
I was born in Brisbane 1970 and adopted out. I still know nothing about my natural family. It's not just aborigines who were stolen.
@darylephillips6778
@darylephillips6778 Жыл бұрын
My wife and i where both put for adoption and we are white thankyou for what you have said it means the world to us
@ambermelrose9462
@ambermelrose9462 3 ай бұрын
My mum lives in Queensland. She has been her whole life never understanding where she belong. She was lucky to meet her Mother but the lifetime mental damage had already been inflicted to both sadly. I have been trying to tell my mum that this needs to be talked about needs to be groups that women and men can meet and get some kind of understanding that none of us know how it felt to be in all your shoes. I’m trying to see if there is already such a thing because it was such a Hidden topic that never got discussed and the victims never got the help and the understanding that they should have. I hope you feel that you were loved by your parents. Sadly I think the pain runs that deep of being silenced and being told what to do the mental scars never heal.
@aussiewarriorwithbpd9380
@aussiewarriorwithbpd9380 2 ай бұрын
​@@ambermelrose9462there are groups that Post Adoption Support Queensland run for both mothers and the adopted children
@aussiewarriorwithbpd9380
@aussiewarriorwithbpd9380 2 ай бұрын
@ambermelrose9462 post adoption support Queensland run support groups for both mothers and adoptees.
@j.j.lehmann6377
@j.j.lehmann6377 2 жыл бұрын
It’s now 2021 and the statute of limitations has still not been lifted in any state of Australia. There is a reason for this - Those in power know this will bankrupt many former forced adoptive institutions - compensation for 1/2 million survivors ( mothers and their stolen newborns). Keep fighting the good fight- justice is required for everyone who was taken from their kin- no matter your cultural background.
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
Adoption- I was a test subject, put into a home where the parents were not able to conceive. In turn this prompted hormonal behaviour and stimulant for the female. It worked my stepmother became pregnant. I was basically dismissed after that . To this day is the same with them . I am No one to them just a pathway for their own children . I ran away from home at 15 . Life has always been a struggle . 💙
@judymchutchison6609
@judymchutchison6609 5 жыл бұрын
This happened to me in 1968 at Crown Street Women's Hospital Sydney. The social worker/child trafficker stamped my medical records with UB- (unmarried baby for adoption). She did not ask my permission or inform me that she had done this. When my baby was born, after a hideous thirteen hour labour, I had a pillow stuck in my face and my baby was snatched from the delivery table. It was clear that I wanted to see and hold my baby but the medical staff complied with the code. I have never seen my baby again and I have never recovered.
@AllBling
@AllBling 5 жыл бұрын
Same here Judy. Brisbane Mater Mothers 1972. My son found me as a 44 y/o man 3 years ago.
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
My heart is breaking . Love from me 💙
@user-vj1jc9mw8g
@user-vj1jc9mw8g 7 ай бұрын
Can't believe this actually happened in a hospital
@ambermelrose9462
@ambermelrose9462 3 ай бұрын
My heart breaks for you. Is that because they had to close adoption because my mum was lucky enough to find her mum but her mum was such a lovely lady but she was so beyond damaged mentally and emotionally that she sadly became very mentally unwell and then passed away. No one understood her. She’s always been told what to do and it’s just breaks my heart that I didn’t understand more than it affects generations after because that mother who had their baby Stolen is affected their adopted babies affected they don’t understand and feel this emptiness and void and unloved and then that gets passed down to the next generation and no one understands or get the help that they need or understanding that they need I hope you get to find your baby if there’s anyway that all of us can help please let us know. 🙏🏼
@OfftoShambala
@OfftoShambala 4 күн бұрын
The medical people still can’t be trusted.
@astaraoneill9166
@astaraoneill9166 3 жыл бұрын
That diocese should pay for professionals to find these women’s grown children.
@amoonstone
@amoonstone 4 ай бұрын
More to the point , imagine being the baby being forced into orphanages & forced to grow up with strangers & having to call these strangers family when you know they are not.
@Krystal6937
@Krystal6937 4 жыл бұрын
It still happens now in the uk and most world wide you never forgive and end up suffering PTSD and many other mental health issues and you never feel whole again.
@danielaayers3449
@danielaayers3449 5 жыл бұрын
Would have appreciated more information on how forced adoption/forcibly removing newborn from mother was allowed to happen in the first place.
@TheKazadoodle
@TheKazadoodle 5 жыл бұрын
They would largely have been unmarried and underage girls and therefore they had no rights, their parents determined their fate. Sometimes they would of age but unmarried and religious and then religion and their parents would step in.
@AllBling
@AllBling 5 жыл бұрын
Society dictated Daniela. Though until Georgia Tann commodified the buying and selling of children, most adoptions were within the family. Between 1924 to 1950 Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home Society stole and sold an estimated 5,000 children ... especially white babies with blond hair and blue eyes. There has been a recent time child trafficker called Tara Lee currently awaiting trial and sentencing. Follow the money. :-(
@jackiekelly4776
@jackiekelly4776 5 ай бұрын
@danielaayers3449 The reason why those "legalised kidnappings" were allowed to happen in the first place was because at the time, being a single mother was considered a blight on society; the unmarried mothers had "broken the rules" regarding motherhood and sexuality therefore they had to be "punished" by having their illegitimate children taken from them without their consent and without being informed of their legal rights. Just in case you're wondering, the young men who impregnated those girls/young women were NEVER EVER held accountable for their part in the pregnancy.
@jadaspeers7279
@jadaspeers7279 Жыл бұрын
My father was adopted in QLD at his birth in 1952. He passed away in 2017. I recently applied for his information and was told that there was a good chance he was part of "the stolen white generation" (their words, not mine). The information was due 2.5 weeks ago so I'm fairly close to knowing what happened. I'm a mother and I wouldn't be able to survive that kind of pain. Knowing my son is the best thing in the world. I can't believe people thought it was the best decision to do this to women. It's horrid :(
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
❤️‍🩹
@ggslv58gng57
@ggslv58gng57 5 жыл бұрын
unless you've been through this youll never know what its like to never know who you really are where you came from and miss out knowing parents and siblings ........
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙Maternal trauma you can never really heal from . I am 52 now and am still suffering to this day . No one ever can replace the love of a mother . My mom was 16 when she had me and was forced to give me up . The family I went to never care when their own child came along so basically left for dead . The damage this does goes far beyond anyone imagination. Love your family’s unconditionally always because we the adoptive ones and those mothers never ever have had that love that most take for granted . It’s a scar that doesn’t heal ever . 💔❤️‍🩹
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
Subconsciously while in the womb we are already doomed, We feel this and carry this all our life . No one wanted us ,this is what we felt . I can’t imagine what my mother went through. 😢 Maternal trauma. Emotional damage %💯
@Khadija..
@Khadija.. 2 ай бұрын
My dear sisters 😥 thankyou for sharing your painful memories God bless you all
@iMatti00
@iMatti00 7 ай бұрын
🤰 ~ People always think the pass was so great, but can you imagine your parents not letting you come home after you were viciously raped by multiple people because either they thought your “purity“ was gone and/or they didn’t want people to know you were pregnant.
@Mark-jq7re
@Mark-jq7re 5 жыл бұрын
I was born in January 1967 & adopted by the nicest & loving family a kid hope for, I count myself lucky to be adopted. I never went searching for my birth mother, but I never blocked someone searching for me either & no one has 😔
@Islandwaterjet
@Islandwaterjet 5 жыл бұрын
Sept 1967 here. I so much wish I had been adopted.
@cherifennell
@cherifennell 5 жыл бұрын
May I ask if your name was changed in any way that would make it difficult for family to find you?
@sahsushkittybrr87
@sahsushkittybrr87 5 жыл бұрын
She would have no information on you and possibly told you had died. Searching is very hard. You probably have more info than she does. Many were told never to look or think, she would have been threatened with being arrested for trying. Her baby ripped away and almost no one cared, not even you?
@jginfographics
@jginfographics 5 жыл бұрын
I was born in 1971 and adopted. I searched for my mother and found her. She didn’t have the mental capacity or the will to search for me. It was a pretty simple process and took only months to do. The big gain for me was to complete my narrative (what happened before I was born) rather than being the baby delivered by a stork. I don’t have a relationship with my birth mother, but in the end I was able to move on, mystery solved. Hope this helps.
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
It is so nice to hear . Thank you 🙏 faith in humanity’s heart
@pamelaherriman2924
@pamelaherriman2924 5 жыл бұрын
These things happened in the USA too. I know they happened to me .
@TheMulattaMermaidShow
@TheMulattaMermaidShow 4 ай бұрын
This is unfortunately still happening
@shazdoryt
@shazdoryt 5 жыл бұрын
This is still going on. it is widespread in the UK. Forced foster-care is also an issue. Family court system is failing as it relies on incompetent practice that is impossible to confront. Parents are suffering, kids are surviving.
@autumnmansfield1304
@autumnmansfield1304 5 жыл бұрын
By forced foster care are you talking about when the baby is born having been exposed to drugs or in dangerous situations or sinister things like race, morality, poverty? I'm not being an ass I'm actually trying to have a conversation.
@shazdoryt
@shazdoryt 5 жыл бұрын
@@autumnmansfield1304 I think there are some cases for removal. However the UK has the highest rate of children being removed and many are not being removed due to dangerous circumstances. Many are being removed from perfectly adequate, loving and caring parents who get caught up in the system while trying to navigate support for their children. Many parents have to deal with false allegations. Social workers have high case-loads and make mistakes. They never admit them as the risk of losing their jobs is more important to them than the risk of placing a child in foster-care. Foster carers do a great job... they are never privy to the court process or the child's past. Babies are being removed when parent are struggling with complex issues that often are ill supported by support services. It's a complex subject and I think the current statistics are proving that too many children are being removed, yet we don't see better out comes for the children. The majority of care-leavers have mental health issues, anxiety and difficulties as a result of being in the care system. Babies being put up for long-term foster care and then a pathway to adoption is a lengthy process, however I am referring to children who are removed when parents struggle to get their children support they need, but once child is placed in care, the support is given and considered priority, thus leaving parents feeling angry that it has taken removal from their homes to get the child the support they needed. In the UK every 6 minutes a child is removed from a parent... often when the child has not been harmed, there is no evidence of harm, but within 6 months they can lose a child if a social worker targets the parent for removal... this is a dubious practice which has been going on for too long in the UK. Since the Baby P scandal, social workers have been taking many children through fear that if they don't, the child will be the next Baby P. I have seen this happen, the parent is often then left with severe PTSD which can lead to suicide. Kids who lose their parents to suicide live with life long unresolved questions, mental health issues and so on. What I am saying is that the social care has become an extremely profitable business and that agencies, judges, lawyers, social workers are all making a lot of money by placing children in care. The foster-carers are a means to an end. They are innocent, the child is innocent and very often, the parent is innocent. From what I can see many parents who take drugs, have alcohol problems and abuse their children often go under the radar, for they rarely seek help. It is the parents that get trapped while seeking support that are easy targets for removal.
@franciscobreva8011
@franciscobreva8011 5 жыл бұрын
So sad
@yalnevatekofreedom5096
@yalnevatekofreedom5096 Жыл бұрын
Imagine being one of those children! Like me!
@Ya-kj9bo
@Ya-kj9bo 2 жыл бұрын
This is still happening now . I had my daughter remove from birth 😭😭😭😭😭😭
@melissahartley6616
@melissahartley6616 Жыл бұрын
❤️‍🩹
@rroge5
@rroge5 5 жыл бұрын
Sent to St Mary's? That sounds like they are a prisoner from the start? Why go there? Why do things like that?
@Pacdatty831
@Pacdatty831 5 жыл бұрын
Catholicism
@TheKazadoodle
@TheKazadoodle 5 жыл бұрын
@@Pacdatty831 St Mary's was Anglican, not Catholic.
@Pacdatty831
@Pacdatty831 5 жыл бұрын
Anglican you’re right. It’s basically the same for the followers.
@MsMaxmotivation
@MsMaxmotivation 2 жыл бұрын
This is horrible 😢
@matildabartle6030
@matildabartle6030 4 жыл бұрын
Still happening.
@xxbellababyrhixx
@xxbellababyrhixx 4 жыл бұрын
Do something about that it's ripping us mother's apart if I survive tomorrow daughter taken seven days old from hospital now 16 months bout to be taken gom 18 they are using my cptsd that I have from child abuse starting 11 months old truma to my genitals phemonia and abuse and neglect taken into care returned for it to continue is this a reason to keep my baby for 18 years I think I suffered enough from my past I don't need it used against me like this when there is children out there in this very town going through what I did
@loulou-se3oc
@loulou-se3oc 10 ай бұрын
It happend all the time in ireland the catholic church were notoriuas for taking babies from their unmarried mothers
@moogieinspace
@moogieinspace 5 жыл бұрын
And yet while 'STILL APOLOGISING' for this even today, they have now brought back in 'FORCED ADOPTION' again here in AUSTRALIA GRRRR!
@soomiko
@soomiko 4 жыл бұрын
...isn't the forced adoption because of abusive parents now
@moogieinspace
@moogieinspace 4 жыл бұрын
@@soomiko No, this is misinformation to keep the public misinformed and pliable so as to not kick up about such an abhorrent attack on Families, if everyone learnt the reality of this and how vulnerable ALL Families are then the public would be up in arms and have been educating themselves about this and fighting with Families against this Abusive Corrupt ACT before they could pass it. I know as I am fighting for 4 of my Grandchildren who were STOLEN not to be FORCEFULLY ADOPTED WITHOUT CONSENT right now my meekest child TARGETED by a very CORRUPT SYSTEM!
@xxbellababyrhixx
@xxbellababyrhixx 4 жыл бұрын
Now the government cover it up with dcp
@dlebrightable
@dlebrightable 2 ай бұрын
Inhuman treatment!
@bravequeen4650
@bravequeen4650 5 жыл бұрын
Force is bad.
@lynrodden656
@lynrodden656 2 жыл бұрын
If other countries can apologise for the actions regarding forced adoptions why cant the UK do the same? They are too busy making money for themselves and not at all bothered about the people they represent, I have been campaigning for years, but I was lucky because my son managed to trace and find me but I still lost 50years of his life. In the eyes of the government, we women are the lowest of low, and they think that we reaped what we sowed without even bothering to find out the reasons why we were in that position. UK government no matter what their beliefs just do not care about other than themselves.
@vickitroman6691
@vickitroman6691 2 ай бұрын
Ive had several stolen
@elizabethbrown8833
@elizabethbrown8833 Ай бұрын
Happened to me in Ohio.
@barrythomas6429
@barrythomas6429 5 жыл бұрын
These facilities and services were only available to the well-off religious families. They had reputations to uphold. For a working class girl you could try and find someone to abort the pregnancy ..or just live with it.
@Harold_Flite
@Harold_Flite 5 жыл бұрын
Or just say No to being a thot.
@alanlowe4253
@alanlowe4253 3 жыл бұрын
Helllllll
@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi
@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi 5 жыл бұрын
Wow :( Never knew this happened to anyone other than the poor misunderstood etc etc aboriginals...
@AllBling
@AllBling 5 жыл бұрын
Our only sin was to be single ... and pregnant. Don't believe the common misconception that we were whores and drug addicts. Most were not.
@pearltoomer6392
@pearltoomer6392 3 ай бұрын
Sorry but 99% women cannot do it if it was not for family friends and welfare or they running after a man who does not wants the child, why put an innocent child in this drama
@iamoriginal1
@iamoriginal1 5 жыл бұрын
I was born in 2019
@DavidFraser007
@DavidFraser007 3 жыл бұрын
Are you human?
@leonabland9891
@leonabland9891 2 жыл бұрын
They do realize this happens all over the world every single day right?
@Harold_Flite
@Harold_Flite 5 жыл бұрын
Can you do "the terrible reality of single parent children.
@rotties-rules
@rotties-rules 5 жыл бұрын
As a child of a single parent what terrible reality are you talking about, how women step up and raise their children in spite of not having support from the father or even in some cases their family or community at large, how they work long hard hours to feed and clothe their children to give them a roof over there head that terrible reality, or how until recently they were shunned and judged because there was no man around, why is it when a man is raising the kids alone is a hero or brave but a women is deemed unfit or unworthy.
@Harold_Flite
@Harold_Flite Жыл бұрын
@Rajan Ramid oi grew up in a single mother home and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
@albihysenaj5997
@albihysenaj5997 9 ай бұрын
Looks like back then no body waited till marriage every single Person had a kid before getting married back in the 50s and 60s also back then body counts were a lot higher than today
@w.t.fpipedreamwithhopefull5538
@w.t.fpipedreamwithhopefull5538 5 жыл бұрын
Useless reporting,?WHY did this happen?. Lets face the realities not just a sad story with no action. This is what happens when religion puts its filothy hands on anything.
@FWCaptain-kv6sm
@FWCaptain-kv6sm 5 ай бұрын
Happens to men all the time and very day no big deal
@_Sami__
@_Sami__ Ай бұрын
How’s it no big deal
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