SOCIAL EVILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22887, 16 November 1937, Page 12

SOCIAL EVILS

CHURCH ATTITUDE

BIRTH CONTROL ISSUE PRESBYTERIAN VIEWPOINT ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS A candid discussion on abortion and contraception took place in the Presbyterian Assembly last night, following the presentation of the report of its public questions committee upon those social problems. The report admits the right to birth control by other means than abstinence, but its recommendation on this subject was not reached last night. The convener of the committee, the Rev. ,7. T. Macky, said that while economic causes led to the limitation of families they would never lead to criminal abortion if it were not for the lowering of the- moral standards and the declining of spiritual ideals of the people. It was the duty of the Church so io raise the moral tone and the spiritual ideals of the people that they would resist any temptation to such a crime. While urging upon the authorities to do all in their power to stop these practices, it was their paramount duty as a Church to instruct their young people in the highest ideals of the family life so that this evil would not bo so much stamped out by the rigour of the law as overcome by the prevalence of nobler ideals. Birth Control Permissible Birth control wus also a live issue at the present time, and their attitude to this depended on their attitude to the whole question of sex and their view of the purpose for which marriage existed. Christian marriage normally included parentage and it followed that some method of birth control other than abstinence was permissible. What the method should be was a medical rather than a moral question. Wherever conception would bo wrong or inadvisable they could not condemn the use of scientific methods of prevention if thoughtfully and conscientiously adopted.

The Rev. F. TT. Wilkinson, who seconded the motion for the adoption of the report, characterised it as ono of the bravest and clearest and one of the most provocative that a public questions committee had ever brought before an assembly. "Hush, Hush" Abandoned

The l?ev. I'. Gladstone Hughes said it was the most important and most challenging report to come before assembly. There was a healthy realism in it which indicated, he hoped, that the "hush, hush" policy adopted by the Church in the past had been abandoned. Contraception had been practised from the time of Adam and the choice to-day was between a blundering method and the scientific method. The report was received.

Mr. Macky later moved that the assembly express its deep concern at the state of affairs revealed in the McMillan report, acknowledge the responsibility of the Church for the low moral standard disclosed and declare that the solution lay in a return to God as revealed in Scripture. This was adopted. Instructive Literature

In moving that the Youth Committeo be instructed to prepare suitable literature dealing with the relationship between the sexes from the Christian point of view, Mr. Mncky said there had arisen a new relation between the sexes and a freedom unknown even a generation ago, and that had not been all to the good. This was only one of the instances in which the Church had to make up for the failure of the home. This was carried.

The assembly agreed to urge the Government to , introduce legislation prohibiting the advertisement of abortifacients and allowing the sale of them only on a medical prescription. The Government was further requested to take tho necessary steps to make the existing machinery of the law relating to,criminal abortion more effective. "There is something seriously wrong," Mr. Macky said in moving this, "when the police can bring tho most convincing evidence and yet fail again and again to secure convictions. Jurymen Criticised

"Many jurymen," he continued, "by their verdicts condone tho activities of the criminal abortionist and in doing so are false to their oath. More serious still is the fact that these decisions are condoned by public opinion." He Baid there was no other crime in the country which could be performed with Kiich impunity and no crime for which the offender was so rarely brought to book.

The motion was supported by Mr. G. Oruiekshank, a former magistrate, who outlined the many legal difficulties in tho way of securing convictions for these offences. Although it appeared that 4000 of these crimes had been committed in a year, less than five persons had been convicted of them. Among alterations lie suggested in tho law were that any statement made by the woman concerned to a responsible person should be accepted as evidence, that a majority verdict should be accepted, and that any person refusing to answer questions in these cases should thereupon be called on to prove his innocence. The debate was adjourned.