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>> Statement: [Page 121]

“Hubbard had forbidden babies on board, but so many women were getting pregnant that he began permitting the children to stay, rather than sending their parents to another post.

The baby boom eventually prompted Hubbard to order that no one could get pregnant without his permission; according to several Sea Org members, any woman disobeying his command would be ‘off-loaded’ to another Scientology organization or flown to New York for an abortion.”

>> True Information: Mr. Starkey, a veteran Sea Org member who was aboard the Royal Scotman and then Captain of the Apollo, wrote: “These statements in the book are blatantly false. The true facts (which I am positive Mr. Wright had access to) are:

  1. L. Ron Hubbard has never ever forbidden anyone to bear a child.
  2. There was not a rash of people aboard having babies that prompted the Officer’s Council of the Royal Scotman to make the decision to transfer the nursery ashore. There already was a full nursery of young people aboard the ship in early 1968. These were children of the officers and crew who were originally recruited for the Sea Org when it was first formed.
  3. The nursery proved to not be an optimum solution for young children as they had no playground, were denied the freedom of wandering in a garden (some of the North African ports that the Royal Scotman visited were unsafe for young children to go unprotected).
  4. The Officer’s Council decision was to permit anyone to marry or raise a family, but not aboard the Royal Scotman. The families were obliged to make a decision and either decide to not raise a family, or to do so, but in that case, transfer to a shore-based unit where their children could be brought up in an environment suitable for young people.
  5. Nobody was ever “flown to New York for an abortion. As Mr. Wright states in a footnote, he received numerous affidavits confirming this. But he chose to print the lies anyway.”