[MamaS]

Originally Posted by Dickons

And the sad thing is that 50ish years later we still have a society filled (and sometimes overflowing) with people who STILL THINK THAT!

So, apparently I too would be feebleminded if my mother was...perhaps I am too feebleminded to realize it...

Society has so much to learn but no eyes or ears willing to get it.

Kind regards,
Dickons

ps. If a birthmom was feebleminded when she had a child out of wedlock and then got married and had children was she "healed of her feeblemindedness"?

If any man did marry a girl who had given birth out of wedlock, he must be a saint! That would make the girl not "feebleminded" but a "delinquent" who had been "cured" by the love of a good man! (Sarcasm here)
You do realize don't you that both the "feebleminded" and the "delinquent" were eligible for sterilization and it was frequently done -- at least in the southern states -- right through until 1969? Thus the problem of any more pregnancies (in or out of wedlock) was "solved".

Personal note: When I was a first-year HS teacher in the late 1970's I was helping a 16-year-old girl plan her schedule. She was from a farming family and was already engaged to be married as soon as she graduated. I recommended a lot of home economics and child care courses to help her as a married woman. Her mother came in to sign off on the schedule and said --"Well, she won't need the child care. The doctor 'fixed' her when she was twelve. Having early babies runs in our family and I wanted her to graduate High School!" Unfortunately the mother had never explained to her daughter what the surgery had been for! When she understood what her mother was saying, that girl went to pieces -- broke off her engagement and dropped out of high school. I don't know what finally happened to her, but at least -- thanks to the wisdom of the state of Georgia -- she never became a mother! (More scarcasm and anger!)