Church in Quebec faces lawsuit on forced adoptions

March 15, 2012

A Canadian attorney is bringing a class-action lawsuit against the Catholic Church in Quebec, charging that Church officials placed undue pressure on single mothers to offer their children for adoption.

Attorney Tony Merchant expects to file similar lawsuits against both Church officials and governments in other Canadian provinces. He argues that in the 1950s-60s, hospital staffers and social workers pressured single women to give up their babies. “The beliefs the Catholic Church had about premarital sex and the judgmental approach the Church had made it particularly aggressive in pressuring women into putting their children up for adoption," he charges.

 

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Further information:

• Quebec's Catholic Church accused of coercing adoptions (Montreal Gazette)