Apology for Past Adoption Practices

November 20, 2020: The Executive
of the General Council of The United
Church of Canada issued an apology
today for its role in separating mothers
and their babies in maternity homes it
operated from the end of World War II
to 1980. “Women told us that they felt,
pressured, coerced, or forced to give up
their babies and the church recognizes
it participated in the culture of shame
that surrounded unmarried mothers
at that time,” says the Rev. Daniel
Hayward, chairperson of the church’s
Theology and Inter-Church Inter-Faith
Committee that recommended the
apology.

The church’s work spans almost a
decade of research and consultation
with mothers’ groups and several
other denominations that operated
maternity homes. The Rev. Hayward
also represented the United Church at

the Canadian Senate’s 2018 hearings
into Adoption Practices (PDF), which
encouraged the denominations that ran
the homes to apologize. Across Canada,
the United Church directly operated
five dedicated maternity facilities.
Pregnant women may also have been
accommodated in several other homes
run by, or affiliated with, the church.

After 1980, both society and the church
were changing their attitudes towards
unmarried women’s pregnancies and
maternity homes began concentrating
resources on supporting women
who wanted to raise their babies
themselves.

The apology notes that the adoption
practices also denied men the right to
know their children and the children
themselves were never given an
opportunity to know their birth family,
and in many cases, their community of

origin. And it commits the church to a
four-point plan to challenge beliefs that
promote shaming, honour the dignity
of each human being, support families,
and “uphold the values of truth and to
openness and encourage healing and
reconciliation for everyone affected by
adoption.”

The effects of the adoption practices
still reverberate in the lives of those
affected. A single apology cannot erase
a lifetime of silent suffering, but it
may be the first step toward blunting
the culture of shame that surrounded
young women who became pregnant
in an era when moral judgments were
quick and severe. The writers of the
apology state, “We have heard how you
lived with shame and stigma placed on
you by the church and society. We are
truly sorry.”

For more information, contact:
Catherine Rodd
Executive Officer, Communications
United Church of Canada
crodd@united-church.ca
416-231-7680 x4071
1-800-268-3781 x4071