STOLEN BABIES

Stolen Babies – a landmark feature documentary for BBC iPlayer /BBC2 that uncovers Britain’s forced adoption scandal.

For over four decades in the postwar era, almost 250,000 unmarried women across the UK had their babies forcibly taken for adoption by the state. In July 2026, the government accepted responsibility for the historic actions and apologised to those affected.

Institutions – including social services, government agencies, and the NHS – appeared to work together within a system driven by deep-rooted prejudice against women based on their class, race, and marital status.

Stolen Babies reveals the state-built and state-funded structures that enabled this practice to take place across the country for more than four decades, shining a light on one of the most significant human rights injustices of our time. 

Told through powerful first-hand testimony from women in Scotland, England and Wales, as well as adoptees, witnesses who worked within the system, and those who exposed it decades later, the film reveals the human impact and the true scale of the scandal for the first time.