History of Forced Adoption Practices
It is estimated that 250,000 Australians were affected by policies and practices of forced adoption, with most adoptions occurring between 1950 and 1975. Unmarried mothers were forced, pressured or coerced to give up their children rather than bear the shame and social stigma of pregnancy and birth outside marriage. Such pregnancies were shrouded in secrecy and the mothers hidden away until the post-partum period, when they were expected to return home, forget about their babies and get on with their lives. They did not forget.
The policies and practices of historical forced adoption in Victoria occurred over an extended period that also saw multiple legal and social changes.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety found there were 39,357 adoptions arranged in Victoria from 1958 to 1984. It is impossible to know how many of these adoptions were forced.
While many of the policies and practices of historical forced adoption were performed by charities, hospitals and other non‑government organisations, the Victorian Government still played a role through its actions and failure to act.
'Closed' adoptions
During the 1950s and 1960s it was assumed that a 'clean break' from the natural mother was best for the adopted child. During this period, adoptions were 'closed'. This meant people who had been adopted were unable to access information about their natural parents, and vice versa.
'Open' adoptions
Evidence began to emerge in the 1960s of the damage caused by closed adoptions and the need of adopted people and birth parents to know about and have contact with each other. The Adoption Act 1984 introduced changes to practice and introduced open adoption. Open adoption facilitates or allows information or contact to be shared between the adoptive and birth parents of an adopted child, before and/or after the placement of the child.
Advocacy
The natural mothers who were forcibly separated from their children have had their identities constructed and reconstructed over the years, emerging at different times in history as fallen women, then mature members of society, and as protestors and lobbyists. More recently they emerge as accepted members of the community receiving the National Apology, and also as sympathetic subjects of popular culture.
No single advocate or advocacy group can take credit for gaining national recognition for the issue of forced adoptions. It was a war of attrition, waged over decades, across the country. The history of forced adoptions is a history of women's activism — from private legal suits to the federal parliament, from meetings with handfuls of women in remote and regional areas to well-ordered and orchestrated conferences. It is a story of women's advocacy for and unrelenting persistence in the pursuit of justice.
In Victoria there have been a range of advocacy and support organisations formed to support individuals affected by forced adoption.
Forced Adoption Timeline
Updated