Australia PM Gillard sorry for 'shameful' forced adoptions

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

21 March 2013 Last updated at 01:14 GMT

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has issued an apology to people affected by Australia's forced adoption policy between the 1950s and 1970s.

Tens of thousands of babies of unmarried, mostly teenage mothers, were thought to have been taken by the state and given to childless married couples.

Many women said they were coerced into signing away their children.

Speaking in front of hundreds of the victims, Ms Gillard said the "shameful" policy had created "a legacy of pain".

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21872919

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Was this some kind of "morality" thing?

[csziggy]

2. Apparently

From the link in the OP: "Many said they gave up their children because of stigma attached to unmarried motherhood at the time."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. From what it says, it was "forced" AND was illegal.

They depended on the mother being uninformed of their rights while some mothers were drugged and some had their signatures forged.

Makes you want to check if adoption agencies were funneling money into corrupt officials because that would amount to human trafficking.

[aquart]

4. It was human trafficking.

[AnneD]

5. The side issue was that many of these were also...

aborigional-placed in white homes or in orphanages...effectivly destroying the indigenous culture.

[hunter]

6. Same thing goes on in the USA.

Report: South Dakota Removes Hundreds Of Native American Children From Their Homes, Collects Millions In Federal Funds

By Tanya Somanader and Marie Diamond on Oct 27, 2011 at 12:20 pm

There was a time in this country when thousands of Native American children were forced from their homes by public and private agencies, then sent to boarding schools where the school founder’s motto was “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” This practice wiped out cultural ties and traditions from an entire generation on which tribes depended to carry on their legacies. In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law meant to ensure that Native American children stay with Native American families, especially when placed in foster care.


But an NPR investigation reveals that 32 states are “failing to abide by the act,” with the most egregious violations occurring in South Dakota. In this state, “Native American children make up only 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half the children in foster care.” According to the investigation, “the state is removing 700 native children a year, sometimes in questionable circumstances,” claiming generic “neglect” when there isn’t any. State records reveal that “almost 90 percent of the kids in family foster care are in non-native homes or group care.”

Meanwhile, these questionable decisions to break up families create a massive inflow of federal money into the state:

Every time a state puts a child in foster care, the federal government sends money. Because South Dakota is poor, it receives even more money than other states – almost a hundred million dollars a year.

...

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/10/27/354306/south-dakota-removes-native-american-children/?mobile=nc

[mpcamb]

7. Glad for the apology...

Given what's been written above.

It doesn't change much but it's the decent and civil thing to do when obvious harm was done in the past.

Wish more government figures would do it more often.