
Spain's Child Abduction Scandal: A Dark Chapter for the Catholic Church
An estimated 300,000 babies vanished from Spanish maternity clinics during and after the Franco dictatorship, sold to childless couples with forged paperwork. DW Documentary traces how a practice that began as ideological punishment of regime opponents turned into an organized business running through doctors, lawyers, nuns, and priests. Mothers describe being told their newborns had died, then denied the chance to see a body or a grave. Adult children raised under false identities describe the moment they learned their birth certificates were fabricated. The film follows victims' groups still searching for relatives decades later, hampered by missing hospital records, uncooperative clinics, and what interviewees call the Church's refusal to open its own archives. A political initiative meant to force accountability is shown stalling in parliament. Interviews with survivors, historians, and lawyers lay out how few cases have ever been resolved, and why most victims may never learn what happened to their own families.