NORWAY’S ANSWER TO ILLEGITIMACY

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32016, 17 June 1969, Page 3

NORWAY’S ANSWER TO ILLEGITIMACY

(By

MARGARET HENDERSON)

We have now begun to understand that the unmarried mother, like any other unsupported mother, needs more support and guidance from society than has been offered. Even if we have no other reason for humane treatment we have realised that subjecting the mother to the strain of insecurity and rejection will, in the long run, harm the child more than anyone, and no civilised country allows a totally innocent child to suffer.

But one of the best ways in which we can help the unmarried mother to stabilise her child’s life is to create a climate of opinion where the unmarried father is much more strongly encouraged to face up to his responsibilities. FEARS UNFOUNDED

It is interesting to look at the position of illegitimate children in Norway where there have been strong and effective laws enforcing paternal responsibility since the beginning of the twentieth century. The fears of some moralists—that strict laws would alienate the men concerned and the increased security thus given to unmarried mothers would increase the illegitimate birth rate—have been quite unfounded.

Each year the percentage of Norwegian unmarried fathers who support their children is in the 90s arid of these well over 80 per sent do so voluntarily. The illegitimate birth rate in Norway in the last 20 years has declined from over 7 per cent (high at that time Because in rural districts “betrothal pregnancies” were customary to prove fertility) to 3.5 per cent. In Norway the movement towards involvement of the natural father had its beginnings in 1901 when Julius Castberg, a member of Parliament, drew up his “Children’s Charter” whose recommendations have been copied by one country after another ever since. In a passionate speech he

condemned “the outrageous and unnatural fiction that an illegitimate child has only a mother, that legally it has no father.” He denounced the “system of concealment and lies in which paternity is allowed to be shrouded.” “DEMORALISING” “It is not only,” he continued, “a wrong done to mother and child, but a demoralising situation for the man as it frees him from his natural responsibility and thereby tempts him to recklessness in giving life instead of regarding it as one of the most serious responsibilities of a man’s life. “This legalised irresponsibility of the man, his legally protected anonymity, exposes the child to want and disgrace and contributes to the feeling these children have of being singled out and disowned and causes so many of them to go down in the struggle for life.” Castberg’s paternity laws, combined with State help for unmarried mothers in difficulties and humane social attitudes have created a situation where only 3 per cent of illegitimate children have to be adopted by strangers. If an unmarried girl becomes pregnant, she is urged, though not forced, to reveal to her doctor or a specially appointed social worker the name of the possible father. The man may come forward and enter into a voluntary financial arrangement. If he is willing to pay an approved sum regularly, the agreement can be signed privately and registered by a court without the necessity of an appearance. This agreement can subsequently be enforced and varied like an affiliation order. If the father does not come forward of his own accord, a writ is served upon him which he must answer within four weeks; otherwise he is assumed to be the father and undertakes financial responsibility for the child until it is 16. ROLES REVERSED In most countries the onus of proving the case falls on the woman, but in Norway the man is considered to be the defendant and the woman the plaintiff. The criminal courts are thought to be unsuitable for this type of case. Questions of maintenance are decided in private Family Courts in Norway. It is in the interests of the State to see that justice is done to the mother for, until she obtains an affiliation order or if she fails to do so, she is entitled to an unsupported mothers’ allowance in common with widows and deserted wives and divorced or separated women not receiving maintenance from their husbands.

If the claim to paternity is reasonably established, the child has the right to its father’s surname, the right of inheritance and is entitled to. maintenance according to its father’s standard of living as the child of divorced or separated parents would be.

In other countries there is a strong incentive for the man to try to persuade the court that another man could be the father, since he knows that if he does, he is absolved from responsibility. In such circumstances an unmarried mother is reluctant to face a possible attack on her reputation especially when the amount of maintenance money to be gained is so often negligible. In Norway the man cannot defend himself by implicating another man since both would then be held responsible. Until recently more than two men could be named as “possible fathers.” They each paid the standard contribution and any surplus went to a special fund for needy children (in such cases there was no right to name or inheritance). Since blood tests and anthropological tests have become more accurate, this law has been modified. NO ESCAPE The Norwegian unmarried father cannot escape from his commitments by leaving the country. In 1957 Norway, like the rest of Scandinavia, entered an international, convention signed by 26 other European nations which made an affiliation order enforceable in the father’s country of residence as well as his country of origin. The illegitimate child is generally in its mother’s charge, but the father can be given custody in special circumstances or if the mother is unwilling, or unfit to bring it up. One comes across households in Norway where a middle-aged couple are helping their son to bring up his child, earning the respect of the neighbours if they create a happy home for him. Since both the child’s parents are expected to be equally concerned about its welfare,, support and education, in the special cases where the child is in its father’s care, the mother must make a financial contribution if she is able to. If, for some reason, neither parent has custody of the child, payments may be required from both. The Norwegians have protested against disproportionately harsh treatment of the unmarried mother while the father goes free. They have proved that such a policy will be respected by both parties concerned, that public opinion accepts it readily as just and the conventional way of life is not undermined.