On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All human beings on the planet own inherent human rights by virtue of being human.  Governments, however, often neglect to protect the human rights of their citizens.

Three clauses in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights pertain to the right of mothers to be free of coercion to surrender their babies for adoption and to be able to keep and raise their children regardless of their marital, social or financial status.

 

“Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

This Clause protects mothers from having their newborn infants taken and withheld from them by hospitals and maternity homes, a policy instituted in many nations from 1950 onwards in order to attempt to prevent unwed mothers from bonding with their babies and thus increasing the chances of surrender of the infant for adoption to meet the growing demand for babies.

This Clause is not restricted to applying solely to adults, and thus infants are similarly protected from being robbed of their natural families.

“Article 16. (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.”

A mother and her newborn child together are a family, and entitled to protection by Society and the State.

“Article 25. (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”

This clause guarantees an unwed mother and her child adequate social assistance such that poverty should never force her to surrender her child to adoption. Poverty of single parents in any developed nation constitutes an intentional government policy of financial coercion designed to dissuade the poor from having children, with the end result of punishing those children who are born to poor families.