The Church of England has apologised for its role in forced adoptions as recent as the mid-1970s, acknowledging the painful experiences of many unmarried women at so-called mother and baby homes in the UK that were affiliated with the church.
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, the first woman to lead the church and the person seen as the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, issued the apology as the church released a report on conditions at the homes from 1949 to 1976.
Many women and girls were forced to do menial labour as a form of "correction'' for having children out of wedlock, and their babies were sometimes described as commodities available to meet the demand for adoption, the report found.
