On March 21 this year, Julia Gillard, the former prime minister of Australia, delivered a long and moving apology to women who had been coerced into giving their babies for adoption because they were not married.

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s such women were considered wayward and unfit to be mothers to their own children.

Information about welfare services and housing, which would have enabled them to keep their babies, was withheld from them.

Many were so traumatised that they have never been able to speak about what they suffered, even to their own close families and friends. Most have since suffered years of physical and mental ill health.

Many of your readers will know that the same situation operated here in the UK and that thousands of unmarried mothers were parted from their babies.

It is for this reason that a group of mothers has formed the Movement for An Adoption Apology (MAA) with the intention that our Parliament should follow Australia’s lead and deliver an apology to mothers here.

We want it to be understood and publicly acknowledged that the unethical practices of that time were an injustice involving the state, churches and charities, and we seek assurance that such policies and practices will not be allowed to happen again.

In a Parliamentary session, an Early Day Motion sponsored by John Leech MP was signed by 92 MPs. The wording can be seen on our website – www.movement foranadoptionapology.org – and on our Facebook page.

During a forthcoming session the EDM will appear as number 77 and we urge your readers to write to their MPs and ask them to sign it.

We also want mothers and their friends and families to contact us in order that we can gather accounts of their experiences in support of our case.

Visit our website or write to MAA, 20 Rookery Way, Seaford BN25 2TE.

Veronica Smith, the Committee of the Movement for an Adoption Apology