FACT CHECK: Did The Catholic Church “Incarcerate 80k Women” as RTÉ Claim?

The Claim: On 25/08/2024, RTÉ posted an ad for a documentary on the mother-and-baby homes. It included the claimed that “between 1922 and 1998, over 80,000 unmarried mothers were incarcerated in church-run mother and baby homes.”

Between 1922 and 1998, over 80,000 unmarried mothers were incarcerated in church-run mother and baby homes. Tomorrow night, new documentary Stolen explores the heartbreaking stories of these women and their families.

Stolen, Monday 9.35pm | @rteplayer #rtestolen pic.twitter.com/AP47KLHBDx

— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) August 25, 2024

The Facts: In 2020, the Final Report of The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation disproved this claim of the “incarceration of women” in no uncertain terms:

“The state and the local authority did not coerce women to enter homes, and neither did the Catholic Church. However it is not surprising that many families or single women, faced with a crisis pregnancy and the cost of ensuring their daughters privacy and care, resorted to mother and baby homes, They provided accommodations, which was undoubtedly superior to what was available in a county home or some private nursing homes, and maternity care, free of charge, without the stigma associated with the poor law. This was a considerable financial saving for the women and their families.”

Furthermore, the report states:

Until the 1960s or the 1970ss, the quality of maternity care in mother and baby home were probably superior to that available to the majority of Irish women at the time. In the first half of the 20th Century most women gave birth at home, attended by a midwife, and sometimes by an untrained ‘handy woman’. They gave birth in houses without running water or proper sanitation, whereas all mother and baby homes had newly-built or improved maternity units by the late 1930s, and a qualified midwife.”

The Verdict: Disinformation ❌

The RTÉ claim is utterly without any truthful basis whatsoever.