Marie Stopes

For the modern organisation that was named after her, see MSI Reproductive Choices.

Marie Stopes
Stopes in 1918
Born
Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes

(1880-10-15)15 October 1880
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died2 October 1958(1958-10-02) (aged 77)
Dorking, Surrey, England
Education
Known forFamily planning and eugenics
Spouses
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(m. 1911; ann. 1914)​
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(1918⁠–⁠1935)​
ChildrenHarry Stopes-Roe
Scientific career
FieldsPalaeobotany
InstitutionsUniversity of Manchester

Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (15 October 1880 – 2 October 1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights. She made significant contributions to plant paleontology and coal classification, and was the first female academic on the faculty of the University of Manchester. With her second husband, Humphrey Verdon Roe, Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in Britain. Stopes edited the newsletter Birth Control News, which gave explicit practical advice. Her sex manual Married Love (1918) was controversial and influential, and brought the subject of birth control into wide public discourse. Stopes publicly opposed abortion, arguing that the prevention of conception was all that was needed,[1] though her actions in private were at odds with her public pronouncements.[2]

In reaction to her controversial beliefs, Marie Stopes International in 2020 changed its name to "MSI Reproductive Choices" with no other changes.[3]

  1. ^ Maude, Aylmer (1933). Marie Stopes: Her Work and Play. John Bale & Sons and Danielsson. p. 42.
  2. ^ Brand, Pauline. Birth Control Nursing in the Marie Stopes Mothers' Clinics 1921–1931. De Montfort University Leicester. p. 243. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  3. ^ "Abortion provider changes name over Marie Stopes eugenics link". BBC News. 17 November 2020.