By Gretchen Keiser

The Pro-Life Action Committee of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Georgia Right to Life Committee, Inc., have intervened on behalf of a divorced white mother whose son was taken from her by court order after she gave birth to a mixed-race daughter out of wedlock.

In a friend of the court brief, the pro-life organizations told the Georgia Supreme Court that if a lower court's decision depriving Kathleen Blackburn, 26, of custody of her son, Nicholas, is allowed to stand, unwed pregnant women will have abortions instead of giving birth. It also said the decision to deprive Ms. Blackburn of custody of one of her children appeared to have been made solely because she chose to bear a mixed-race child while unmarried.

Mrs. Blackburn is mother of three-year-old Nicholas by her marriage to Mark E. Blackburn. The couple was divorced in July 1979 and Mrs. Blackburn was given custody of Nicholas.

Almost two years later, in May 1981, she gave birth to Jennifer, a mixed-race baby.

In November 1981 Jenkins County Superior Court Judge W. C. Hawkins awarded custody of Nicholas to Nancy Blackburn, Kathleen Blackburn's former mother-in-law, who had petitioned the court to turn Nicholas over to her care. No visitation rights were provided Kathleen Blackburn.

In his ruling Judge Hawkins stated that Kathleen Blackburn had "surrendered her right to continued custody" of Nicholas, saying she has "failed to provide adequate supervision, moral guidance and medical attention as are necessary for the child's well-being," and "given birth to an illegitimate female child while in custody of the minor, Nicholas Evans Blackburn," and had "become an unfit custodian" of Nicholas.

Nancy Blackburn, the mother-in-law, said on one occasion she had seen Nicholas playing with other children unsupervised in a parking lot near his house and on another occasion had seen dirty dishes in the sink inside the house. She also said, however, that she had never seen Nicholas improperly dressed for the weather.

Critics of the decision have charged it was discriminatory.

The Georgia Supreme Court agreed last week to review the case. In their brief, the pro-life groups said the lower court judge's decision raised the questions of whether a divorced mother of a white child could lose custody of that child if she has a racially mixed child out of wedlock and whether she should be considered unfit for custody of one child but not the other.

Unless the Georgia Supreme Court reverses the lower court decision, "it will thereby clearly indicate to all unwed mothers and all prospective unwed mothers that they have no rights with respect to their living or prospective children," the brief stated.

To tell a woman who is expecting a child out of wedlock that she can have no right to the custody of the child whom she is bearing is to give her a very plain signal that she should terminate her pregnancy by abortion," it argued.