Secretive US church coerced women into giving up babies for adoption

Former members of a secretive Christian sect in the United States have revealed to the BBC that they were coerced by the church to give up their children for adoption. These former members stated that hundreds of such adoptions may have occurred between the 1950s and 1990s. Some of the children adopted within the church told the BBC that they suffered abuse and neglect in their adoptive homes.

These allegations have surfaced following a BBC investigation last year into decades of child sexual abuse allegations within the church. The church, believed to have as many as 100,000 members worldwide, is commonly referred to as "The Truth" or "Two by Twos." The FBI has launched an investigation into the matter. The following content may contain some disturbing details.

Four women, who were unmarried at the time, told the BBC that they had no choice but to give up their babies. Three of the women feared that they would be excommunicated from the church and sent to hell if they refused. One woman said that after being raped in 1988 at the age of 17, she was forced to give her child to a married couple within the church. “The fear of going to hell was so great, it forced me to make the decision to give my child to this couple in the church,” she told the BBC.

Another woman said she did not even get a chance to see her daughter before she was taken away forever. The BBC also interviewed six babies who were adopted between the 1960s and 1980s. One of the women said that she suffered physical and emotional abuse in her first adoptive home within the church, and sexual abuse in her second. These adopted children, born across the United States, were known within the church as "Baldwin Babies" because the adoptions were overseen by the sect's doctor, Wally Baldwin, who died in 2004. According to a pastor who worked with Dr. Baldwin, some women would live in his Oregon home during their pregnancies.

The exact number of "Baldwin Babies" is not known. The BBC interviewed the late doctor's adopted son, Gary Baldwin, who said that the original records are no longer available, but he believes the number is "less than 200." He said that his father's vetting process "inevitably" made mistakes, but his intentions were good. Others interviewed also said they had a good impression of Dr. Baldwin. Because "The Truth" church has no official leader, the BBC contacted six of the church's most senior current officials, known as "overseers," for comment. A response was received. This overseer told us that any adoptions he was aware of were done "through legal channels," and that he had "heard some beautiful stories." One adopted woman recalled seeing Dr. Baldwin keep a photo album with hundreds of pictures of "Truth" church children for whom he had organized adoptions. Another adopted man told us that he had personally contacted more than 100 Baldwin Babies and their mothers.

The church was founded in Ireland in 1897 by a Scottish evangelist, and its core is that ministers (known as workers) spread the teachings of the New Testament orally. Most of the mothers interviewed by the BBC believe that the workers, as well as "The Truth" church as an institution, should bear the primary responsibility for the trauma caused by the adoptions. “If I kept this child, I was going to hell” – said 62-year-old Melanie Williams, who gave up her child for adoption in January 1981. “At some point, the church went off the rails and became a fear-based cult, and I was forced to make a choice.” At the age of 18, Melanie became pregnant after “madly falling in love” with a boy at school. Not only were the two unmarried, but the child's father was not a member of "The Truth" church and refused to join. This meant that Melanie had committed a "terrible sin" in the eyes of the local workers. The workers and her family decided that she could only continue to attend church meetings if she gave her child to another family within the sect. "If I kept this child, I was going to hell. If I kept this child, I couldn’t go home,” Melanie recalled thinking at the time.

She gave birth in a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma, where she was discreetly placed in a private room. She remembers being loudly reprimanded by a doctor when she started crying during labor. Melanie's child was taken away before making a sound, and she said she didn't know if she had given birth to a boy or a girl. The new mother wondered if her child might already be dead. When she eventually learned that her child was alive, she told a nurse that she was hesitant about the adoption and wanted to hold her child. "You can never hold your child," was the reply. Years later, Melanie managed to find her daughter, but she did not want to meet. Deb Adadjo, 54, was also unsure whether to give up her child, but felt too pressured at the time to refuse the workers who threatened to ban her from attending church meetings. In "The Truth" church, this meant not only being excommunicated from the church, but also going to hell. She became pregnant after being raped in 1988. Recalling holding her newborn, she said, "I can still feel her against my chest now." "In our last moments together, I remember just holding her, telling her over and over that I loved her, and that I was sorry," she added. "I had to let her go, I had no choice." Deb later met her daughter, but they no longer keep in regular contact. Sherlene Eicher, 63, from Iowa, said she has never stopped missing the daughter she felt pressured by her parents to give up in 1982. She briefly held and fed her newborn before they were separated. Sherlene holds a private birthday celebration for her daughter every year. "When her birthday comes around, I'll buy her a birthday card, and a couple of times I've made a cake," she said. "I also do a lot of journaling – wondering where she is, what she's like, what she might be going through at this age." Then in 2004, Sherlene's daughter contacted her by email and they met. To this day, their relationship is very close. "When we finally met, we just hugged and hugged and hugged," Sherlene said. "We would talk on the phone for two or three hours – she's a very amazing woman."

Those interviewed said that the adoption system had almost no vetting, which created conditions for abuse to occur. They said that when a baby was about to be born, Dr. Baldwin would contact workers for recommendations, and they would recommend a family in the sect to place the child with. Of the six Baldwin Babies interviewed by the BBC, two suffered sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in their adoptive homes, while one said she suffered emotional abuse from her adoptive father. One woman said she was removed from her first adoptive home by social services due to severe physical abuse and was placed in the home of a church "elder" (a senior figure who held meetings in his own home) and his wife. She said that the couple began sexually abusing her within weeks, when she was 15 years old. Another woman said she was beaten daily by her adoptive parents and was sexually assaulted by an uncle in her adoptive home when she was five years old. Since reports of widespread child sexual abuse within the church began to circulate two years ago, former and current members have begun connecting in Facebook groups, including Baldwin mothers and babies. “The mothers – I know how they feel, I have so much sympathy for them. I cry for them when they write their stories. But for myself, I’ve cried all my tears out,” Deb said. “It’s like finding my tribe,” Melanie said. “I’m not alone anymore.” “Our mothers were afraid to hold us, our fathers were ashamed of us, and only when we made the ultimate sacrifice were we accepted by the church.” “After all these years, we are all going to be okay.”