The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade is a 2006 book by Ann Fessler which describes and recounts the experiences of women in the United States who relinquished babies for adoption between 1950 and the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

[1] As a documentary filmmaker, installation artist, and author, Fessler first produced several autobiographical installations on adoption; two featured her previous short films Cliff & Hazel[2][3] about her adoptive family, and Along the Pale Blue River (2001/2013) about her search for a yearbook picture of her mother.

In 2002, Fessler began interviewing women who lost children to adoption between 1945 and 1973, when an unprecedented 1.5 million babies were surrendered under tremendous social pressure.

[4] She collected over 100 oral histories of women who had relinquished their children and the shame and guilt they felt which had effectively silenced them.

[5][6] Social workers in the homes classified the primarily white unwed mothers as neurotic or morally bankrupt and subjected them to extreme secrecy and psychological intimidation.