HOUSING AND RACIAL TRAGEDIES [To the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—The Spectator has always stressed the need for more and better housing and for contraceptive birth control ; and you have recently given publicity to letters from Dr. Birinic Dunlop and from Mrs. Janet Chance, urging the need for revision of the present laws concerning abortion. May I cite a recent example of the tragic injustice of a statute enacted seventy-two years ago, and of the results of vile housing con- ditions ? It occurred in one of the Home Counties, in the course of last year. A girl, under fourteen years old— is now an expectant mother ; she was under thirteen when the disaster occurred. Her child's father was employed on a farm, and lodged with her parents, in conditions of indescribable over- crowding. It is only fair to add that this man expresses great contrition, and that there is no allegation of violence against him. He must now stand his trial ; but the law— which tolerated the foul housing f—insists that the girl's pregnancy must go to term What prospects are before her and her unborn child ?
May I earnestly suggest, Sir, that abortion law reform. plus adequate housing, would perhaps be of more benefit to suffering humanity than the forty-five new churches in the Ham e Counties,-planned. and appealed for by the Bishop of London last June ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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