Licensed Contraceptive Vendors Advocated

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 2

Licensed Contraceptive Vendors Advocated

Vendors of contraceptives should be registered and licensed to sell them, according to the Christchurch branch of the National Council of Women. This week the branch passed a remit that the council ask the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) to amend the law governing the sale of contraceptives accordingly. Several members spoke against the remit One said she did not see how such a law could be properly enforced. A law that could not be enforced was a bad law. Until the standard of morals changed it would be better to have contraceptives freely available—even to school children—in case that would help cut the illegitimacy rate.

The meeting also agreed that the Government should be asked to establish, in conjunction with a suitable voluntary organisation, a rehabilitation centre to which mothers convicted of neglect of and/or cruelty to children should be committed at the discretion of the court, rather than to prison. Members were concerned that parental cruelty to children was increasing, and felt that some solution other than prison should be considered. In Britain there were five centres where such mothers and their children were sent for up to four months, the meeting was told. There they were taught budgeting, cooking, and care of their children.