MARRIAGE HEALTH CERTIFICATE.

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 223, 19 January 1914, Page 6

MARRIAGE HEALTH CERTIFICATE.

I here is just now a demand from American women all over the country that laws should be passed which will iquire tiiat all parties c onte inplating matrimony secure health certificates, and display the same before they lx* granted marriage licenses. Active steps are also being taken bv Women’s Clubs and e»the*r organisations to secure the nation-wide adoption of such laws to protect themselves and their children. I he*re* are also certain clergymen who have made it known ihat they will not marry e (tuples except upon the presentation of a certificate signed by a reputable* physician that both parties are physically and mentally qualified to e ontrac t marriage. I his announcement has been as a match to kindle* a fire* of enthusiasm, which promises to be the greate*st moral and health movement amongst women the world has, perhaps, ever known. A common-sense advance, destined to obtain for themselves and

their childrc*n legislative protection. “Every pure woman," says Dr. Sarah McNutt (surgeon at New York Infirmary for Women and Children), has the right to lx* protected in enter ing into the marriage relation. She should lx* secure in her hope of motherhood, and in the* joy of bearing healthy children. It is a disgrace to

our civilisation, a fearful sin of omission on the p.irt of the State, that so many noble and pure women suffer because they do not receive this protection. Every child has the sacred and inalienable right to be born free from disease, free from deformity, and with pure blood. The State which does not do it* full duty in the matter of securing these sacred and inalienable rights to all children, is deficient, and delinquent in its duties.”

\\ h.it do New Zealand women think, and what do they mean to do in this matter?