European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday september 21, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 More women want babies without husbands going it alone by Iris Krasnow United press International t he definition of unwed Mother has been stretched with time. Joining big time unmarried moms like Farrah Fawcett and Jessica Lange a growing Breed of White Middle class women Are taking on pregnancy without husbands or shame. Before the big breakout was of my god i m pregnant now the big freakout is of my god i m not and i m still single and getting older " says Clel Benedetto administrator of the Santa Cruz women s health Center in California. On the average two women a week Call or drop by her Center with inquiries on single parenting. Benedetto 35 and unmarried is seriously considering it Lor herself. In 1982, the last year census figures Are available out of Wedlock births increased by More than 4 percent according to the . Department of health and human services. It s no longer a social phenomenon confined to Low income minorities. In 1975 Black women were bearing children out of Wedlock at a rate seven times higher than single White women. By 1982, single White women began catching up with a birth rate Only four times lower than that of single Black women. The women interviewed for this article Are All Middle class Whites. One 31-year-old Washington writer who heard that tick of my biological clock is expecting her first baby in december. The father is her companion of the past seven years. Neither want marriage. When i became pregnant i announced it jubilantly to everyone but i could Tell some people were thinking of you poor thing. He won t marry you " she says. I do think this is the Man i will be with forever but having a baby together is As big of a commitment As two people can make. Frankly i m afraid to have a new marriage and a new baby All at once. I would eel one night with a stranger gave Lange Burnett 31, the baby she d wanted for a year. Burnett s daughter Jade Thiele was born last Valentine s Day. I feel like meeting Jade s father was god s gift says the Dallas make up artist. I had asked the lord or the right person to come along. When i met Jade s lather one evening. I actually heard a Little voice saying this is the Golden one " it was a one Nighter and that was she describes the Man she chose to father her child As extremely intelligent handsome and Burnett did t Tell the father she had conceived until after Jade was born. My baby girl was 6 weeks old when i told him she Erma Bumbeck v Atio called Prei Farrah Fawcett and or child by Ryan o Neal. Said. I had t seen him since that first night. He was shocked to say the least but he came Over right away. Now he comes Over almost when he sees her. His eyes Light up. He wants her to know he s her daddy she said. Burnett says she and the Man Are simply it lends. The father a fledgling actor Model is not in a position to share child raising expenses now but Burnett is confident he will be in the future. And there s a possibility the couple will be parents together again. Provided i stay single. I d like to keep my family in the Bloodline says Burnett. I think he probably would go along with the Legal ramifications for such unmarried fathers have yet to be determined. There has t been a great Deal of litigation that would show the rights of the says Colleen Connell. Director and Legal counsel for the american civil Liberty Union of Illinois reproductive rights project. But if a Man were not married to the Mother of his child and he wanted to assert parental rights Connell said he would have to establish his paternity in court before he could assert those rights. Then. I would expect it would be very similar to the kinds of custody disputes we see Between people who Are in lieu of a willing or unsuspecting partner other women Are opting Lor artificial insemination or adoption. These women feel they Are entitled to have a child with or without a says or. Joseph Feldschuh. Co director of id ant laboratories in Manhattan the largest sperm Bank in the world. Although he says the numbers of single patients Are rising these women still constitute a very tiny fraction of females signing up for artificial insemination. Or. Feldschuh estimates the Ligure at 5 to 7 percent. We Don t accept people who Are not emotionally and financially stable he continues. The single women we see Are significantly above average in educational background and obviously selective. They Don t want to just go out and seduce his patients Are largely in the mid-30s age Range yet one woman was impregnated at age 45. When donor sperm is deemed acceptable the Man is paid $25 per specimen. What does a woman who has been implanted with sperm from a plastic syringe Tell her child when he or she is old enough to ask about daddy i m trying to develop language that my son will understand to communicate that his father was a sperm donor. I be already started talking to him about it says Barbara Leboy who was inseminated 4 years ago by my own private Way not a sperm Leboy administrative director of the Oakland feminist women s health Center is amazed at the mushrooming trend. Sixty percent of our patients Are unmarried women she says. More than half of that group Are lesbians. The facility is the major sperm Bank in the san Francisco Bay area. No matter what a woman s sexual preference is the common denominator among these patients is wanting to have a says Leboy. And she would rather choose a donor that has been screened medically than to try and Start a relationship Lor the Sake of having a new yorker Nancy Perlman 41, who has never been married is opposed to artificial insemination but is unwilling to pass up child rearing. She is currently exploring adoption avenues. I can t imagine telling my kid that his lather was a sperm Bank says Perlman the executive director of the Center Lor women in government. If there Are any kids around that Are adoptable. That seems to be a better route. I just can t imagine going through life not having a y husband and i watch a lot of animal documentaries on pcs. We have for years. At first it was enough to satisfy the Public s curiosity of animals by seeing a whale take a trip to the Baja or a Deer called Bambi play in the Meadow. It was real inter Esting. After a couple of years when All the animals in the world had been photographed taking trips and playing in the Meadows producers figured we should see How they get their food. Twa seamed reasonable. It was also a Little Gross seeing mothers eat their babies snakes eat Bird eggs Bonn stalk Newborn wildebeest cheetahs eat monkeys and bears grab handfuls of fish out of streams and stuff them into their Mouths. We went through a couple of years of hyenas fighting Over carcasses but it was real interesting. But the focus on How animals of their food was soon used up and someone decided it might be fascinating to see How animals gave birth. There was t a documentary that flashed by where someone was t falling out of someone. Some animals dropped their eggs some gave them to a Friend to carry. Some car ried them in their Mouths and spit them out and i would t have been surprised to see someone give birth in their ear. Seeing a male sea horse give birth gave me a moment of exhilaration but it got a Little stale. Producers were up against the Wall. What else could you say about animals then someone suggested their sex Hie. Bingo. Animal documentaries have never been the same since. There is an unwritten Law among censors that sex is Only dirty when it applies to humans. With animals it s a Way of life and in perfect Accord with the evolution of the planet and everything living on it. Joan Rivers could get arrested for saying what David Attenborough would get a conservationist medal for. I have seen Lions doing you know what on to every 10 minutes of their courtship night crawlers who Are switch hitters and very weird Salmon who kill them selves going upstream to spawn and having done it die a Happy death. I be seen ducks who grab the neck of the female and practically drown her for the privilege walruses who maintain harems and the Swift Birds who mate in flight their Mother knew what she was doing when she named them. Paparazzi Slink around every Bush and tree in Africa followed by 50 natives carrying lenses. There in t a single creature on land sea or air who is Sale from the probing Eye of the camera. Why those poor pandas from China have not had a moment s peace since they arrived in this country. We were cleaning out the garage the other Day when my husband said look at that there were two spiders on the Wall one Small female and the other male twice her size. I do believe we re going to see an a rated documentary the male spider moved closer to the female and ate her. So much for sexual appetite. I wonder where we go from Here. To lot an tweet Timm Send Loaft
