Children of Unmarried Parents Act
As descendants continue to contact us, we are intrigued by documents referencing the Children of Unmarried Parents Act (CUPA). If the CUPA was for “unmarried” mothers why then did the history form of this Mercer Baby state the mother was married? Is it possible the CUPA statistics could help reveal what happened to the children born prior to a mother’s imprisonment, or what happened to babies born at Mercer?
Maternity Homes, Juvenile Delinquents, and the Salvation Army
An article by Salvation Army Captain Mary Webb, a social worker at the maternity home Vida Lodge, discusses adultery, moral illness, maternity homes, sterilization—and concludes with a reference to incarcerated unmarried mothers and their illegitimate pregnancies at Mercer:
“I note there are eight unmarried mothers now in the Mercer Reformatory. May I point out that, without doubt, these girls are unable to respond to the existing services in the community because they are emotionally disturbed. More truly, they are committed to the penal institutions for reasons other than their illegitimate pregnancy. That is incidental to a total problem of delinquent behaviour.”
More coming soon—we know the identities of four of the girls referenced, all incarcerated in the special west wing of Mercer known as the Ontario Training School, Toronto.
Note: This page is taking longer than expected to complete, but rest assured—we’re doing our best to update it as soon as possible.