New Delhi:
A secretive church in the United States allegedly abused and forced women to give up children for adoption, according to a BBC investigation. The church, known as The Truth or the Two by Twos, coerced hundreds of unmarried mothers into giving up their kids — some without even seeing them — for adoption between the 1950s and 1990s.
At least four unmarried women have shared their harrowing stories of being pressured into giving up their babies. Three of them feared being expelled from the church and sent to hell if they refused.
One woman, who was just 17 when she was raped in 1988, alleged she was pressured into giving her baby to a married couple in the church. “My fear of going to hell was so great that it forced me to make up my mind to give up the baby to this couple in the church,” she told BBC. Another claimed that she was not even permitted to see her baby daughter before the child was taken away permanently.
Not just that, some church-adopted children have said they were abused and neglected by their adoptive families. The FBI has launched an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse within the church, which has up to 100,000 members worldwide.
Six people, who were adopted as babies between the 1960s and 1980s, included a woman who alleged she was physically and emotionally abused in her first adoptive family and sexually abused in the second, BBC reported.
The adopted children were referred to as “Baldwin Babies” because the adoptions were overseen by Dr Wally Baldwin, a sect member who died in 2004. According to a minister who worked with Dr Baldwin, some of the women stayed at his home in Oregon during their pregnancy.
The actual number of Baldwin Babies is unknown, but Dr Baldwin’s adopted son, Gary Baldwin, estimated it to be “less than 200.” Gary acknowledged that mistakes were made in the vetting process but claimed his father’s intentions were good, while others also said that they remembered him fondly. However, former members of the sect believe the church and its ministers, known as workers, should take responsibility for the trauma caused by the adoptions.
The British broadcaster contacted six senior officials of The Truth, known as “overseers,” for comment. Only one responded, stating that any adoptions he was aware of were done “through legal channels” and that he had “heard some beautiful stories.”