ircumstances_ regarding the separation of any mother from her baby as
"an exceptional and deplorable necessity."[166:1]

What I have said already will make it abundantly evident that I cannot
accept this view. I feel convinced that it is founded on a feeling of
sentiment for the mother rather than on a desire for justice to the
child. This tendency to confuse two separate issues has been marked in
all the numerous recent discussions of the unmarried mother. I have
heard the strongest indignation expressed by feminist speakers whose
sentiment bubbles from them like a pan of porridge boiling over. "The
child should be brought up in the atmosphere of the mother's love";
"Mother and child should not be separated," this is the opinion repeated
again and again, and _always without qualification as to the character
of the mother_. Even those few workers who realize the situation much
more as it presents itself to me, from the standpoint of the child's
welfare, and therefore advocate the placing of all illegitimately born
children under "authorized protective oversight," yet cling to the
sentiment that it is "best for the child to remain with its mother."
They apprehend the difficulty of the mother's character--or rather want
of character--but they do not take the necessary bold step out of this
net of sentiment, and face the truth that, in many cases, the first and
great enemy from whom those ill-used little ones have to be protected is
their mother.

Unmarried mothers are overwhelmingly preponderant among the frivolous
and weak-willed. This will be an unpopular statement to feminist
sentiment; few women are honest in facing this question, though probably
they do not know that they are dishonest. We women need to be more
careful in accepting the over-hasty view that these illegitimate mothers
in any large numbers are good girls who have been led astray by men.
This view, once held by me in common with most women, I have been
compelled to give up. Seduction cannot, I am sure, be accepted without
very great caution as a common cause for illegitimate births. My
experience has taught me that nervous instability, the result often of
monotonous or too exhausting work, leading quickly to a desire for
excitement and effort to escape dullness, as also love of finery and joy
in receiving presents, are the principal motives that lead girls into
illegal relations. And what I want to make plain is this: a
characterless girl, irresponsible