Babies for Burning
- Date:
- 1970s-1980s
- Reference:
- SA/BPA/D/1
- Part of:
- BPAS, British Pregnancy Advisory Service
- Archives and manuscripts
Collection contents
About this work
Description
Set of material relating to the libel case brought by BPAS regarding claims made in the 1975 book, Babies for Burning written by UK journalists, Michael Litchfield and Susan Kentish (which was based on an earlier article by them in the News of the World entitled, Phantom Babies ). Much of the content of the book was found to be based on misleading evidence, as revealed in a Sunday Times article, 'Abortion Horror Tales Revealed as Fantasies'.
The authors withdrew their allegations against the BPAS in a statement in open court on 18th January 1978. They ‘apologise[d] for any distress and damage’ which their allegations had caused and ‘recognise[d] that BPAS exercises the greatest care in the employment of qualified medical practitioners, and in selecting and training its counsellors.’
There is also documentation of several other seperate but related cases, particularly one brought by Thomas William Pond against the News of the World for defamation, awarded in favour of Pond.
Publication/Creation
1970s-1980s
Physical description
24 Files
Arrangement
These files are catalogued and made available in the order and groupings of which they were received from BPAS, other than repackaging, no additional organisation has taken place.