MOTHERS’ RIGHTS.

Shannon News, 7 August 1923, Page 4

MOTHERS’ RIGHTS.

Lord Askwitk’s Bill, called ' ‘ Tho Guardianship of Infants Bill,” which was read a second time in the House of Lords a short while ago, provides that the mother of every legitimate infant shall be guardian jointly with the father for all purposes, and have equal authority, rights and responsibilities. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Cave, stated that while the Government had no objection to a second reading and a reference to a Select Committee, it could not give a pledge to give facilities to the Bill, Lord Cave looked with misgiving on the proposal for joint guardianship, and its possible effect on the harmony of many households. What a curious idea, it appears to me, that a proposal that mothers should have some authority over her own child should ever have been questioned. The possession of her own children is, however, not by any means, to the law in England, sure for a woman. Children can be taken from their parents under the Adoption Act, and if so, the parents would not see them until they were eighteen. It i ppears to me a terrible harsh and unjust law that a woman because of her husband ’s bad conduct to her may even be refused to see her children if they have been taken into a Poor Law Institution. I feel very strongly that to refuse to allow a mother the occasional, at stated times, visits to her children, even if she has been the parent to blame by her neglect or by her bad example, is not right, and the large, influential society which is run for the purpose of adopting children, and which makes the signing of an agreement, giving up all rights akd promising never to see the child or even to know where it has gone, is absolutely wrong in principle. I therefore welcome any Bill which will have for its effect the tendency to awaken that parental responsibility which is implanted by nature, and which should not be so lightly regarded as it is in these days.