The Welsh Government is expected to apologise to mothers who were forced to give away their children against their will for two decades. From the 1950s to the 1970s, unmarried women across the UK were subjected to forced adoptions, after being sent away to "mother and baby homes".
It is thoughts thousands of women were shamed into giving up their babies, some of whom were only allowed to spend days with the newborns before never seeing them again. A UK Parliament inquiry in 2022 estimated that between 1949 and 1976 185,000 babies were affected across England and Wales. The joint committee on human rights of MPs and peers found many women were shamed and coerced into giving up their children.
Deputy Social Services Minister Julie Morgan MS gave an apology in a personal capacity in January but the formal apology expected in the Senedd on April 25 will come a month after Scotland's former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's apology on the same issue.
The Welsh Government did not exist when the practice occurred and Wales was governed by the UK Government. The UK government, which fully governed Wales until 1999, rejected the committee's calls for a formal apology in its response to its findings.
One Welsh woman who was forced to give up her child says her son was taken from her at just eight days old. Ann Keen, is a campaigner and former MP, who was sent to a Swansea mother-and-baby home aged 17. According to BBC Wales she was told she could spend 10 days with her son after giving birth in January 1967, but she says that on day eight he was taken away because she had become "too close" and she never got to say goodbye.
She told Radio Wales Breakfast on Tuesday: "Today's people [in charge] were not involved, but the consequences of how it happened will always stay with us and it's not right. I am so proud of the Welsh Labour government coming to apologise to this, and I really urge the UK to do the same. Because why not?"
She added that she felt overwhelmed, adding that she and other women were talked about in terms of giving up their baby, when in fact they were taken from them. "In a way it clears the name for both of us, and for many thousand of other mums who maybe haven't been part of this campaign because they kept silent, because you're told it's so shameful, that you mustn't tell people and you must never talk about it," she added.
"I so commend the Welsh government. They weren't involved, but they understand the trauma I went though in Swansea. I am shaking now, I don't know quite how I'll be, but I know I will have feelings of some sort of justice for all of us."
Mothers told the committee inquiry they felt their treatment during and after giving birth was deliberate punishment for their pregnancy while unmarried and that they were denied pain relief and abused by staff.
Julie Morgan gave an apology in a personal capacity in January. The deputy minister said that while forced adoption practices predated devolution in Wales, "they have a lasting legacy on all those who experienced them - for both the parents and the children".
"We cannot change what has happened, but I can provide assurances that adoption legislation and practices have been significantly strengthened since and we will strive to provide as much support as we can."
The UK Government said: "The Government thanks the Joint Committee on Human Rights for their report. We agree with the Committee’s findings that the treatment during this period of many unmarried parents, especially women, was wrong and should not have happened.
"The adoption practices of this time caused suffering to many women and their children, and had a profound impact on the family lives of all those involved. These practices have had a detrimental effect on the lives of not only the women and their children, but also on fathers, siblings, extended family members and their adoptive families too. We are sorry to all those affected by historic adoption practices. We are sorry on behalf of society for what happened. Whilst we cannot undo the past, lessons of the time have been learned and have led to significant changes to legislation and practice.”
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