FOR BETTER PEOPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 13, 15 July 1938, Page 10

FOR BETTER PEOPLE

STERILISATION AND BIRTH

CONTROL

By a very large majority, the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union supported Mrs. T. R. Barrer in two remits which she sponsored, dealing with voluntary sterilisation and birth control. The first remit urged that a vital step in a national health campaign consisted in measures to prevent an increase in the families of the feeble-minded, epileptic, and others with hereditary taint by (1) A fuller programme of segregation, as provided for by tlie Mental Defectives Amendment Act, 1928; (2) a conservative policy of voluntary sterilisation on the lines recommended by the Departmental Committee on sterilisation, presented by the Minister of Health to the British Parliament, 1933. The second motion expressed support for the establishment of responsible birthcontrol clinics either (a) by medical practitioners; or (b) attached to St. Helens hospitals; or (c) attached to public hospitals. Those who opposed the second half of the first remit put up a spirited opposition, but the conference held that the matter was a national one, and that personal religious convictions should not be allowed to dominate such an issue.

Mrs. Barrer, who has sought the support of the division in these measures for many years, was paid a tribute for her tenacity and hard work.