Mommy Collage

In the 50s and until 1973 when Roe Vs. Wade passed, 1.5 million young single women, many of them children themselves, were forced to give up their newborn babies in closed adoptions. Pregnant, confused and vulnerable, they were shunned by family and friends, and expelled from school. There were under enormous social and family pressure, often being coerced or outright forced to give their babies. The standard treatment they faced was being sent away to 'maternity homes' to have their children alone, often treated with cold contempt by doctors, nurses, and clergy. Of course the long-term effects on these girls and women and on the children they gave up for adoption were debilitating. Mothers who chose to keep their baby carried trauma and guilt and the child bore the stigma of being illegitimate, resulting in the child’s diminished legal rights. My mother was one of these young women and she is immortalized in “Mommy”.