Part 3 – Social Worker Rationale for Coercion

Evidence of Systemic Violation of Single Parents Rights – Part 3

Profit and punishment: Why they coerced us to surrender our babies

Market Demand:

“ Because there are many more married couples wanting to adopt newborn white babies than there are babies, it may almost be said that they rather than out of wedlock babies are a social problem. (Sometimes social workers in adoption agencies have facetiously suggested setting up social provisions for more ‘babybreeding’.)”SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS, National Association of Social Workers, (Out-of-print) copyright 1964

“ Lawyer Karen Lane admits that private adoption can smack of ‘buying babies’ .”Born Losers, p.151, by L. Carlangelo

“ Vincent also emphasized that his study was made in a location where, and at a time when, a demand for white adoptable infants existed. He suggested that: ‘If this demand were absent, the unwed mothers who now score high in personality scales measuring, e.g., socialization, maturity, and responsibility, might very possibly be more inclined to assume the responsibility of rearing their illegitimate children.’ ”THE UNMARRIED MOTHER – HER DECISION REGARDING ADOPTION, Barbara Hansen Costigan, 1964 Dissertation, University of Southern California

“. . . babies born out of wedlock [are] no longer considered a social problem . . . white, physically healthy babies are considered by many to be a social boon . . . ”(i.e. a valuable commodity..). – Social Work and Social Problems (1964), National Association of Social Workers.

“ If the demand for adoptable babies continues to exceed the supply then it is quite possible that, in the near future, unwed mothers will be ‘punished’ by having their children taken from them right after birth. A policy like this would not be executed — nor labeled explicitly — as ‘punishment.’ Rather, it would be implemented through such pressures and labels as ‘scientific findings,’ ‘the best interests of the child,’ ‘rehabilitation of the unwed mother,’ and ‘the stability of the family and society.’” Unmarried Mothers, by Clark Vincent (1961)

Punishment:

“. . . society has seemed more interested in punishing the unwed mother and her illegitimate child than in understanding the social, economic, and psychological forces which have placed them in a deviant social position.” The Unwed Mother,  edited by Robert W. Roberts, (Harper & Row) copyright 1966

“‘The father plays absolutely no part in this. That is part of her rehabilitation. When she renounces her child for its own good, the unwed mother has learned a lot. She has learned an important human value. She has learned to pay the price of her misdemeanor, and this alone, if punishment is needed, is punishment enough… ’ Dr Hillard echoes the beliefs of the social workers and the agencies dealing with unwed mothers, though hers have come to her privately. And she, like the other authorities, though refusing to blame the girl’s home, lays the remedy right on its doorstep… ‘We must go back to a primary set of values and the discipline that starts with the very small child,’ says Dr. Hilliard.” (Dr. Marion Hilliard of Women’s College Hospital, as quoted in the Toronto Telegram, November 22, 1956)

Trimming the Welfare Rolls:

“ To the Province generally the great advantage and economy of the Adoption Act can be realized when it is stated that many of the children before their adoption were costing five and six dollars a week for maintenance.”- 35th Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Dependent Children (Ontario, 1928)