How Spanish Women Were Allegedly Targeted In 'Stolen Babies' Cases For Decades
A secret adoption network started in Spain in the 1930s as a fascist tactic to purge "communist tendencies" from women who defended the republic, say prosecutors and academics.
For almost 40 years, Pilar Navarro thought her daughter was dead.
She gave birth at a private Catholic hospital in Madrid in 1973, anxious to start a family. But less than 24 hours after delivery, Navarro's nurse — who was a nun — told her and her husband that the baby had died from respiratory issues. The young couple could not see the body because the hospital had already baptized and buried the child, according to the nurse.
"We never thought a doctor or a nun would do something like that," says Navarro, who is now 68. "We couldn't understand it."
It wasn't until 2011, when thousands of stories about Spain's "stolen babies" came to light,
