Single mothers in particular used to have a hard time in the past, not just due to the economic challenge, but also due to government harassment. I recall reading an article about how they routinely had their children taken away in 1950s and '60s West Germany, with the kids being forced to grow up in often abusive church-run orphanages. I don't think Germany was the exception in this regard.

My own father was put in such a place for just a few days when his married mother was hospitalized and his father was unable to care for the toddler due to his work. He still has nightmares about the abuse he had to endure from the nuns there.

I was reading it and thinking "they unironically want The Handmaid's Tale, stop."

Killer username BTW.