Marie Stopes

Marie Stopes
Stopes in 1918
Born	Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (1880-10-15)15 October 1880 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	2 October 1958(1958-10-02) (aged 77) Dorking, Surrey, England
Education	University of London (BSc, DSc) University of Munich (PhD)
Known for	Family planning and eugenics
Spouses	Reginald Ruggles Gates ​ ​ (m. 1911; ann. 1914)​ Humphrey Verdon Roe ​ ​ (1918⁠–⁠1935)​
Children	Harry Stopes-Roe
Scientific career
Fields	Palaeobotany
Institutions	University 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]