LONDON – Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday formally apologized for the state's role in historic forced adoptions that separated unmarried mothers from their babies.

An estimated 185,000 children were adopted in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976, when pregnancy outside marriage carried a strong social stigma. Many mothers, some of them still teenagers, were pressured or coerced into giving up children they wanted to keep.

"What happened to them, and to tens of thousands of mothers, children and families, should never have happened. It is a stain on our history," Starmer told parliament.

He said the practices were neither isolated nor accidental, but were embedded in systems involving local authorities, voluntary and faith-based organizations, and health and social care services, including parts of what later became the National Health Service.

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The government acknowledged that successive administrations had funded, enabled and relied on systems that were not properly overseen. The state had failed to prevent the harm from continuing and had not done enough to protect mothers, children and families, Starmer said.

"On behalf of the whole country, I say it to every single person impacted: we are deeply and profoundly sorry," he said.

Starmer said the shame belonged not to the mothers or their children, but to the state and the institutions responsible. Some adopted people had grown up believing they had been unwanted, while many mothers had carried feelings of loss, guilt and shame for decades.

He also acknowledged the difficulties many adopted people still face when trying to obtain records or trace their biological families. Some records have been lost, altered or remain difficult to access, while requests can take months or even years to process.

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In 2022, UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights called on the government to issue a formal apology, concluding that it bore "ultimate responsibility for the pain and suffering caused by public institutions and state employees that railroaded mothers into unwanted adoptions."