The Liberty Lost Podcast Investigates the World of Modern ‘Maternity Homes’

The idea of sending a pregnant person to a “maternity home” might sound like a relic of the 1950s. But, as the Liberty Lost podcast explains, these homes are still operating today, and could impact even more mothers and babies in the post-Roe era.

The Wondery investigative series, which came out last week, has rocketed up the charts with its gripping report about the Liberty Godparent Home, a maternity home for pregnant people operating on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Since 1982, the home at the university, which is one of the most powerful cultural institutions in the right-wing evangelical movement, has housed women with unplanned pregnancies. Some people may associate these types of facilities with the bygone and horrifying “baby scoop” era of nearly a century ago.

The home states that the women they house have a choice whether or not to parent their child or relinquish them for adoption. But the women interviewed by show host and investigative journalist T.J. Raphael say they felt pressured to choose adoption.

In response to the claims made in the podcast, the Liberty Godparent Foundation, which runs the home, tells Glamour that it rejects “claims of this tabloid podcast as irresponsible journalism designed to undermine this important work and to minimize the importance and effectiveness of pro-life organizations.”

“Since 1982, the Liberty Godparent Foundation has supported hundreds of young women to offer housing, counseling, and educational resources that empower informed parenting and voluntary adoption with compassion and care,” the statement reads. “Its vital role in serving Central Virginia has been widely recognized for decades. Our staff and volunteers work tirelessly in this ministry and have built a reputation of being a trusted voice and ministry resource in the community. They have treated every individual who has sought assistance with compassion and integrity.”

But the podcast is about more than just one maternity home. It challenges the entire American construct of adoption, asking difficult questions about how we view birth or natural mothers, who “gets” to parent in this country, and the dismissal of the trauma these mothers say they faced after separating from their children.

The podcast’s most prominent subject, Abbi Johnson, attended the home as a teenager and gave birth to her son in 2008, describing on the podcast that she felt pressured to relinquish him from both home staff and her evangelical parents. Her experience has led her to feel compelled to speak out about the ongoing trauma she says she has faced from feeling pressured to relinquish her son, first on social media and then in the podcast. She tells Glamour that sharing her story so publicly has been “empowering.”

“For me, living without access to my own child has been so dehumanizing…it’s been a really painful experience my whole life,” she says.” Not anonymous, being just myself, it felt like I had nothing to lose.”