Brits angry over word ‘marriage’ being removed from birth statistics
By ANIWednesday, February 23, 2011
LONDON - In a new bid to avoid discrimination, the word “marriage” has been asked to be removed from the records of British women who become pregnant.
Now Government statisticians will publish the number of mothers-to-be who were in “a legal partnership” at the time they conceived, which will include both marriages and women in civil partnerships.
Eight years ago Labour ministers ordered that the word “marriage” should no longer be used on official documents because they said it led to discrimination against gays.
However, there has been a growing chorus of complaints that the censorship of the word will warp official records and erase the evidence which shows that married couples and their children live healthier and happier lives.
The Office for National Statistics’ new figures show that there were 896,300 conceptions in England and Wales in 2009.
But, rather than referring to numbers inside and outside marriage, they only show that 57 percent of pregnancies began “outside a legal partnership”.
The disappearance of marriage statistics has come despite a plea from Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
“I have asked my department to ensure references to marriage are included on relevant forms and research in the future,” the Daily Mail quoted Duncan Smith as saying in a major speech earlier this month. (ANI)
