Appeal court judges in The Hague on Thursday dismissed a case brought by a number of women who had been forced to give up their babies because they were not married and were suing the Dutch state for their suffering.

Some 13,000 to 14,000 unmarried women who had babies between 1956 and 1984 were forced to hand over their children after coming under pressure from social workers and religious authorities.

Lower court judges ruled in 2022 that the state was not responsible for the women’s suffering, leading one of them, Trudy Scheele-Gertsen, to take the case to appeal. The Clara Wichmann Institute, representing a number of other women, later joined the legal campaign.

Scheele-Gertsen maintains that the child protection council should have supported the young mothers and informed them about their rights. But her files and eyewitnesses say this never happened. Instead, the council advised the women to give up their babies.

The appeal court on Thursday ruled that the situations of all the women involved in the claim were different and not suited to a class action case. In addition, Scheele-Gertsen’s case is too old and past the statute of limitations, the judges said.

Nevertheless, the court said, the situation is a “dark page in history.” “It is very clear that this is a case full of pain, and that pain is real and palpable,” the court said in its ruling.

Scheele-Gertsen had her baby in 1968 at the age of 22 while living with nuns from the Paula Foundation in Gelderland. She gave birth blindfolded and never saw her child, first having contact with him in 2018. The boy spent the first three years of his life in care before being adopted.

She told NRC after Thursday’s verdict that she had done all she could. “Such a battle costs money and energy,” she said.

“But with this case, we have made history visible,” she said. “The fact that thousands of babies were taken away from their mothers without permission is something that most people now know about.”