Abbi groeit op in een vroom evangelisch gezin, met een vader die haar een purity ring geeft, waarmee ze uitdraagt dat ze maagd zal blijven tot ze trouwt. Toch raakt Abbi op haar zestiende zwanger, tot afgrijzen van haar ouders. Die sturen haar naar het Liberty Godparent Home, een instelling waar zwangere meisjes kunnen bevallen, ondertussen worden ze onder druk gezet om hun baby af te staan aan degelijke christelijke echtparen die ervoor in de rij staan. Het klinkt als een praktijk uit een ver verleden, maar deze instelling doet nog altijd uitstekende zaken, zeker sinds abortus in veel Amerikaanse staten niet langer legaal is. In het aangrijpende en integer gemaakte Liberty Lost horen we van drie moeders hoe het eraan toegaat in dat tehuis, waar ze gedwongen werden hun baby af te staan.
In Evangelical homes across the United States, sex outside of marriage is a sin against God. So, when Abbi becomes pregnant at 16, her devout parents hide her away at the Liberty Godparent Home, a little-known facility for pregnant teens on the campus of Liberty University. The Home says it helps girls decide what comes next – whether that’s parenting their babies or placing them for adoption. But inside the facility, the girls hear a different message: God wants their babies to go to more “deserving” Christian couples. Some girls will find the strength to fight back. Others will have no choice but to give in. And some, like Abbi, will turn their grief into resistance – and take a stand against the system before more mothers lose their children to adoptions they never wanted.
From Wondery, host and reporter T. J. Raphael tells a startling true story of young love, coercion, and defiance – and the dangerous resurgence of maternity homes in post-Roe America.
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In the first half of the 20th century, one woman changed adoption in America. What was once associated with the shame of unmarried mothers became not only acceptable, but fashionable. But Georgia Tann didn’t help children find new homes out of the goodness of her heart. She was stealing babies from happy families and selling them for profit. By the time her crimes are exposed decades later, she’s made a fortune – and destroyed hundreds of families along the way.
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