Social evolution has progressed, perpetually learning and growing from our lessons learned. However, far too often our history and the complex issues that are tied to these events, are forgotten. The liberties we have today, working in tandem with the advanced mental, social, and health systems, allow us to address unwanted pregnancies and adoption in a much more effective and healthy manner.
Birth control for women, though legal, was not commonplace in post-war America. In fact, “in Syracuse, New York, and elsewhere, public health clinics, with a high proportion of minority clients, generally refused to dispense birth control materials to unmarried girls and women” (Rickie Solinger, 1992, p. 54). The ideology was abstinence. If an unwed girl or woman became pregnant, she typically only had one choice, adoption, as abortion was only done if the woman’s life was in danger. "After World War II, countries including Canada, Australia, UK, and the United States created adoption policies which included, illegal and unethical practices, as well as human rights violations" (Valerie Andrews, 2011, p. 1). In the mid-twentieth century, nearly 2 million unwed, pregnant, white women in North America were coerced into giving up their babies for adoption, due to social
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3). Hospitals would keep the unwed mother away from the married mothers. Eye contact between the mother and her baby was not allowed, the treatment of these mothers was routinely horrific. The staff surely knew that the unwed mother was coming in uninformed as to what to expect during birthing. Nevertheless, the mothers were often left alone, drugged and even shackled during their labor. Once this event was completed, and society was content, the mother was left traumatized with a lifetime of despair, to cope with on her