Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

by Grady Hendrix

Maternity homes existed in America since the nineteenth century, but they became widespread between 1945 and 1973, from the end of World War II until Roe v. Wade. While their secrecy makes numbers hard to come by, it’s estimated that at least two million babies were surrendered for adoption in the United States during that period, and many of them were born at one of the 190 homes for unwed mothers that existed in forty-six states, run variously by the Florence Crittenton Mission, the Salvation Army, the Catholic Church, and a variety of independent operators. Whether girls had been raped or sexually abused, believed a promise that wasn’t kept, didn’t have access to contraception, or simply didn’t know it existed, they were told that getting pregnant was all their fault. Doctors and social workers labeled unwed mothers “neurotic,” newspaper columnists suggested they be housed in Alcatraz, and politicians blamed them for everything from high taxes to crime to the collapse of Western civilization.