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The Tragic Army of
lllegitimate Children
T HE
problem of illegirimacy:
premarital pregnancy and
aborcion is as much a social problem
in Europe as in the Unired Srares.
In England and Wales, there
were
56,023
illcgirimare birrhs in
1962.
This made every fifreenrh
child illegitimate. Every sevenrh
child was conceived ourside of mar–
riage, and every third or fourrh
morher conceived her firsr child
bcfore her wedding day. By
1969,
every elevench child in rhe Unired
Kingdom was born illegirimarely.
Researcher Birgitra Linner has
reporced rhat in Sweden "more rhan
40%
of all firsrborn babies are con-
*There are rhrcc basic measures of illcgirimacy -
number. rario and rare.
Thc
number of illegiti–
mate births indiC2tCS the toral volume and
LS
used
ro compute both rhe ratio and rare. The illegiri–
macy rario is the number of illcgirimare births per
1,000
livc binhs and is rhe measure mosc
frequendy uscd in an erroncous manncr ro
"prove" that illcgirimacy is running rampanr
among rccn-agcrs.
Rdativcl~·
few illicir birrhs
among females fourrccn
)OCS
and younger resuh
in an exrrcmcly high illegirimacy ratio for this age
group bccausc of the small number of roral live
birchs ro fcmalcs in rhis agc group. For cxamplc,
for
1963,
rhc
).400
illicir binhs ro femalcs in rhis
youngcsr
~roup
rcsuhed in an iUcgitimacy rario of
71 1.9,
bur
10.900
illicir binhs ro femalcs
.n-)9
years
of age rcsulred in an illcgirimacy ratio of
only
33.8.
('Thc rario is somctimes referred ro as
an illegirimate child can be con–
demned ro a cycle of poverry which is
seldom broken.
In rhe case of an illegirimate child.
rhere is rhe chance of a derrimencal
efTecr on che child's personali ry and
emocional development due ro thc
father's absence. The mere fact of
being illegirimare is a tragic social
srigma which may cripple che child
cmorionally and menrally.
A premariral pregnancy is not an
event occurring in a vacuum.
PLAIN
TRUTH
September-October 1972
ceived before rhe wedding rakes
place." In a study of French birrhs
(reponed in
1968),
sociologist Gil–
berr Dooghe said rhar ·'only
59
per–
cenr of all firstbirths in that counrry
should be considered as conceived in
marriage."
In
1954,
J.
Duck found thac
32
percenc of over
2,500
Ausrrian
bridcs from Innsbruck were preg–
nant at
che
rime of marriage. R.
Gunzerr srared in
che
official
Year–
book of Frankfurt am Main
(1953)
rhat 70 percent of che children born
in
che
firsr year of married life were
premari rally conceived.
Figures reponed by American
"the rarc of illtgirimacy" in a nonrtchnical sensc
ro denote rhe illegitimac)· rario as
a
percencage of
100;
thus
a
"4
percenr rare of iUegitimaq" would
indicare a ratio of
40
illicir births per
1,000
live
binhs.)
The allegirimacy rare. when uscd in a rcchnical
sen.'IC. is the numbcr of illegitimace binhs
per
1.000
unmarried fcmalcs of childbearing agts. This
measuce indiC2tCS whcthcr illcgirimaq is increas–
ing or dccrcasing in relation ro ics "opponu–
nitics."
Ir
is rhereby
che
mosr ccliable indicaror of
increases bccause it aakes inro accounr rhc rotal
number of unmarried females in any given age
group a
e
a particular historical ci me. ("Teen-Age
Unw~
Morhers in AmeriC2n
SocíCt\'.~
Clork E.
Vinccnt.
journal of Sofial
IJJlltS,
l966. XXII.
No. 2.
pp. 24, 25 .)
Direcdy. rhe child and the morher
will suffer che mosc. Bm
che
parenrs
of both the morher and che farher are
indirectly afTec1cd. So is rhe commu–
niry and rhe society.
One American aurhoriry estimares
rhat the bill paid by sociery for each
illegirimate child during its life is
abour
$100.000.
~lulriply
rhar by rhe
millions of illegirimare children, and
rhe cose in moncy :done is asrronomi–
cal. The cosr in human sufTering is
incalculable.
authors concerning rhe extent of rhe
premariral pregnancy problem are.
in general, lower.
Dooghe. for example, made a sur–
vey of
13,000
families - couples
married from
1931
to
1962 -
in che
Flemish cities of Hasselr and Mech–
elen. He found rhar rhe number of
premariral conceprions resulring in a
legal birrh was
16.5
percenr in Has–
selt and
19.7
percenr in che cown of
Mechelen.
In Denmark in
1963,
sorne
8.9
percenr of all birrhs were regisrered
as illegitimate; in
1964
che percen–
rage was
9.3.
The figures for rhese
rwo years are higher than rhe
1950
figures, bu
e
chey scill fall shorr of
che
figures for rhe period of
1931-
1935
when
10
percenr was the aver–
age.
In Denmark in recenr years, ir has
been esrimared that
20
ro
25
percent
of all pregnancies were terminated
b)• aborrion.
Illegirimacy races have been rela–
rively high in Norrhwestern Europe.
Iceland, Germany. Austria, and Swe–
den have had rares of about
20
ro
30
percent.
" Let's Nor
Appear
Too Dogmatic"
A good many sociologisrs
see
rhe
dangers of premarital sex. Bur ofren.
rhey dcsire ro .tppear "liberared" and
up ro date.
One observer arrending a meeting
of famil)•-life specialisrs noriced a
srriking paradox. The specialists were
discussing some of rhcse critica! arcas.
Most of rhem were known for rhcir
liberal views on pre- and extra-marital
23