Baird Seeks Support In Birth Control Fight

Birth control crusader Bill Baird yesterday collected signatures at Harkness Commons for a petition supporting his Dec. 2 appeal on a five-year prison term in the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

Arrested for giving an unmarried woman a non-prescriptive contraceptive during a lecture last April at Boston University, Baird said again yesterday that single women should have the right to receive birth control information and material.

'Intercourse'

Morality is not the question, Baird said. "If it is a fact that unmarried people have sexual intercourse, then they should be able to use birth control devices."

Contraceptives and legalized abortion will prevent unwanted children and abortions by quack doctors, Baird said. Birth control information is needed especially in the ghetto, Baird said, but there are "even people here at this school who are pregnant because they don't know about birth control."

Dissemination

Massachusetts law forbids abortion unless the life of the woman is in jeopardy, and forbids any dissemination of birth control information except to married women by registered physicians.

Students are planning to march at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 2 from Boston University to the state supreme court, Baird said.