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As a possible extension of the service the Committee indicated that they would
also give consideration to the possibilities of the setting up of counselling clinics for
adolescents.
At the end of the year plans were in hand to implement the Council's decisions
outlined in (a) and (b) in the foregoing.
Care of Unsupported Mothers and Their Babies
Miss H. Oliver, Social Welfare Worker, comments: —
The report for 1968 on the care of the unsupported mother and her child comes
at a time when the Abortion Act and youth advisory clinics are being widely debated.
That these matters are closely related to the problem of illegitimacy is clear.
There has been a steady decrease in the numbers of new cases reported in this area
as the following table shows.
1966 1967 1968
175 147 115
This may be accounted for by the fact that routine contraceptive advice is almost
universally given to single women attending post-natal clinics and also to those referred
to special clinics to exclude venereal infections.
Whether the Abortion Act has also contributed to a decline in illegitimate births
in this area is not easily assessed. The number of pregnancies known to have been
terminated is small, but the actual figure cannot be given.
The traditional Christian view that life has other purposes than the complete gratification
of every impulse brings little response in a society which places a total value
on personal emancipation.
It seems logical to supply services which meet the need created by the permissivness
current in the world to-day.
The facilities available for unsupported mothers under the National Health Service
Act, 1946 continue to meet the need in this district despite closures of homes and
hostels in the vicinity.
That more voluntary effort is going into the field of housing minorities is to be
welcomed in the area and, although the need has again been small, there has been a
trend for women wishing to keep their babies preferring to be home makers themselves
rather than returning to the family home with all the stresses that sometimes ensue.